8.28.10 ~ Coney Island

Today we ventured out to Coney Island for the first time since we’ve lived in New York. Annette and Ryan met us out there and we basically ate our way through the place with pizza, hotdogs, and beer pit stops.

Secretly, I was using the amusement park as sort of a personality test for little Liam. I don’t think he’s ever been around so much stimulation in his whole life. There were crowds, loud announcers at each booth, bright colors, music, and rides zooming around above Liam’s head while spinning kids in circles and flipping them up-side-down. My goal was to figure out if my kid is a thrill seeker and action junkie (so that I can start now with making plans to lock him up for his teenage years) or whether he would approach this environment with a bit of caution. I’m not sure I got my answer. On the one hand, he was definitely not scared. In fact, he promptly wiggled out of my arms and ran off zigzagging to look at whatever caught his eye without ever checking to see whether Jason or I was actually following him (obviously, we were). On the other hand, after expressing interest in every single ride (all of which he was too short for), when we finally got the carousel which was appropriate for his age, he didn’t want to ride it. Several loud “NO’s” from Liam encouraged us to give up and go get pizza instead.

After eating we decided to get on the Ferris wheel since that didn’t have a height requirement either. As we stood in line waiting for our turn, Liam basically jumped out of my arms to get into every little passenger booth that passed by before us. Once we got in, we rode up, up, up, and Liam got very quiet and stared intently out at the view of the park, the ocean, and the street in front of him. But he was definitely not scared. Not even as much as a whimper came from him as we rode high into the blue afternoon sky. In fact, he refused to sit on my lap and instead wanted to sit by himself, next to me on the bench. Of course, it’s impossible to know for sure, but I think he thought it was really, really cool.

So, I’m not sure what my conclusion is. He definitely wasn’t scared of the height of the Ferris wheel, but also wasn’t willing to take the risk of riding a stationary horse in a circle for three minutes. What I do know for certain after today is that Liam absolutely loves pizza and hotdogs.