The Greatest Show on Earth

Yesterday was a rather busy day. It started with Rebecca's 9am dance/gymnastics class, followed by a late breakfast at Manhattan Bagel, followed by a brief stop at home to change into Ben's basketball clothes, followed by basketball practice, followed by a trip back to Manhatten Bagel because Rebecca became convinced and hysterical in the car on the way back from basketball that she had left her bunny at Manhattan Bagel. (Of course she hadn't- it was at home). We stopped at home to change Ben out of his basketball clothes, and then headed uptown to go to the circus.

I should mention at this point that we were without Joel all day, who got stuck at work for 12 hours yesterday taking care of a sick newborn who, as it turned out, did not end up actually having cancer. So... it wasn't supposed to have been Joel's patient at all. Oh well.

Anyway, the circus turned out fine -- despite my extreme misgivings about being there by myself and convinced that Rebecca was going to freak out for some reason, requiring me to remove both kids from the show. Rebecca actually was very excited and remained so even after the lights went down and the music and all the activity started. She actually was so excited that at one point she fell out of her chair. After that I held her hand or let her sit on my lap to keep her from falling again (as she almost fell into the lap of the boy sitting in front of us). Towards the end both kids got a little ratty and started arguing with each other over the popcorn, lemonade and cotton candy they were sharing, but overall it was a success.

We followed the circus with dinner at Mama Fu on the way home, where my potty training luck with Rebecca ran out for the day... despite having stayed dry up until that point, she wet her pants and then not 10 minutes later pooped in her pants too. It was lucky that I had two extra changes of clothes for her with me and not just one, but unlucky that I did not also have a change of clothes handy for myself -- because somehow while I was wrestling her out of her poopy pants some poop ended up smeared on my pants. NOT cool. (You hear me Rebecca?? NOT COOL!)

After we got home Ben reflected, "I don't know why they called that The Greatest Show on Earth."

"You don't think so?" I asked. "What was missing?"

"Well," Ben said, "There wasn't enough tightrope walking."

"There was a guy riding a motorcycle on a tightrope," I pointed out.

"Yeah... but... I don't know. I still think it wasn't the greatest show on Earth."

Tough crowd....