eating elephant ears redux

Going to the fair has really become our annual thing. I mean if you're going to have an annual thing for your family it should probably involve petting baby goats and eating fried exotic things and strapping your babies to whiplash machines and fresh lemonade and THE FAIR HAS ALL OF IT! There's just something super magic about the fair coming to town. Also there are amazing quilts and a model train conductor showcase (which we were super disappointed to not be able to find this year because Loretta kind of lost her mind in the building that has all the hobbyist displays). It seems two year olds get pretty bored by quilt shows right around naptime. Who knew? She announced it was time to head for the hills, went limp in my arms, yowled, threw one shoe into a crowd in one direction, kicked the other shoe into a massage lady's booth, and tossed her new toy cow under a guy's wheelchair for good measure... all at the same time. Deep-fried gin where were you when I needed you? That was when we called it a day. But before that we had so much fun...

Loretta tried so hard to get her hands on baby goats. Otto carried the annual Muth Family Elephant Ear to our picnic table and then a few minutes later was completely dusted in sugar from the eyebrows down. Loretta won a prize cow and went on her very first ride.

Otto's favorite part was the fun house. Loretta's was the hand-dipped corndog. Rob's was the ferris wheel that he rode with Otto who is tall enough for the ferris wheel this year for the first time. Mine was seeing all the animals and having a good old-fashioned fun time out in the sunshine with my favorite people on the planet.

eating elephant ears

sure, i talk a good game about eating some fair eats at the fair, then Otto comes along and puts the smack down...

kid ate the bejeezus outta that "elephant ear" which i'd always known as fry bread and who cares what you call it, you eat it, you eat it all, fool! then you eat the corn!

then you corn dog photo bomb!

then you make a terrible mistake and decide against chasing this all down with some frozen NY cheesecake on a stick. which you shall regret for days and days and days.

food. happy food.

we also met up with Ot's sweet friend Hazel and hit the kiddie rides. Otto's fair face makes my heart go pitter patter.

so much fun. i could watch Otto at the fair all day. and can't wait til next year when we can maybe take Loretta on a tame ride or two. also hopefully next year she won't demand to eat just so she can be all distracted by fair things and expose the mom's boob to the fair air over and over as she looks all around but still insists she must eat and also, wait, distracted, boob exposure, and tearing away of the coverup blankie many many times, but no really, hungry, except wait, this person hasn't glimpsed your boob yet, must eat, cannot focus, eat, just kidding, eat eat, but no, but yes, hello here's my mom's boob guy dressed like a mattress, i am hungry, no i am not... and so on. because that part was less fun. also while she was doing that Otto totally bogarted ALL THE FOOD.

for reals though, i just love that we're making this an annual family tradition, and Eugene's county fair is just the right size. A+

Vintage Daddy

When Ot was about 6 months old Rob's mom gave us a couple of polo-Ts, a baby blue tuxedo, and a Coach's uniform from Rob's childhood. I was so excited to realize recently that the polo-Ts now fit! We dressed Otto in vintage Daddy gear this past week...

I just love these soft little polos. They remind me of Elliot from E.T. ♥ (still brings a tear to my eye after all these years) or Sebastian from Never Ending Story (best kids movie ever). And I can just picture "little Rob" running around in them 30ish years ago getting into mischief, watching He-Man, drinking Squeeze-Its, and riding a Hot Wheels in the driveway. Oh boy. Memories!

Otto is such a little Rob sometimes in both the way he looks/acts and in character (so silly, naturally musical, artistic, soooo logical and methodical) and it always brings a huge smile to my face to see the similarities between wee man and regular-size man. At 2 years, 2 months Ot is a card carrying KID. Hardly even a toddler anymore. A kid! Wow. Crap. Scary.

When did this happen? Why is he so bossy!? Haha, I really don't mind, but for reals, Captain Bossy Magoo.

I love it and it makes me want to cry all at the same time. Where does the time fly? It flies so fast! Sigh.

We took our little KID to the Tucson Festival of Books last weekend. Such fun! All towns should have an annual book festival. What a great thing to celebrate. Plus... carni food! Here is Ot noshing down (80s polo style) on some homemade lemon gelato.

Not pictured: me stuffing my face with roasted corn on the cob. I'm hoping to recreate that COTC this afternoon after Ot's nap. Gonna fire up the bbq, grill some tofurkey kielbasas & corn, and splash around in the kiddy pool a little since it's almost 90 out today (gah, ugh, oof, Tucson, gaaaaah).

Did a mention oof, ugh, gah, Tucson is hottttt. Ugh, gaaaaah.

I hope everyone is having milder fair weather this week. Enjoying your families. Opening your windows! Drinking green beer? Anyone? I have an organic strawberry ale I'm gonna crack later that I'm pretty excited about. *Pretending it's green*

xo,
Lindsey