Life Lesson #123,223,240

I guess you keep learning, no matter how old you get. Not that I'm old, of course, but the learning-thing seems like it should be contained in our school-attending years, yet it isn't. And Connor is here to prove it.

Connor love, love, LOVES airplanes. So, being the Mom of the Year that I am, I researched to find the nearest - and soonest - airshow. It just so happened that one was scheduled to take place at Dobbins, which is approximately 10 miles from us.

We planned our trip to accomodate for naps, eating, Echo's walk, play time, and everything else that goes on during a typical Saturday morning at the Martin household. Again, being MOTY, I wanted to make sure that we avoided the crowds in case we had a meltdown and needed to make a fast escape. So we went to a parking deck where a friend suggested we go to avoid the huge crowds. Well, let's just say that we went to the parking deck and no one was there. For good reason. Back on the road again. We followed the airplanes to a closer location.

We found a spot in a parking lot near the airshow. We pulled up and saw 100 other people had the same idea. Now I'm not one for crowds but this was a much better indication that we had chosen a good location than what we saw at the vacant parking deck 10 minutes earlier.

After unloading Connor from the car, we pointed up to the sky and showed Connor the awesome airplanes doing tricks and stunts right about us. He was amazed. Well, he was entertained. For about one minute. We were there long enough for Mom and Dad to enjoy the cold beer (in plastic cups, of course) that Mom packed for the adventure.

Our learnings about airplanes are three-fold.

One: don't take your child to an airshow unless he/she is more than 16 months of age if you want them to appreciate it.

Two: you know how I mentioned we live 10 miles from Dobbins? I should have also mentioned that we live 15 (?) miles from the Atlanta airport. And airplanes fly over our neighborhood ALL OF THE TIME. I never realized this until I was outside with Connor and he put his hands in the air, pointing to the sky, every few minutes to make sure that I saw the planes flying overhead.

And Three: airplanes and airshows are worthy of at least 10 conversations. It amazed me how many times the airshow came up in conversations the week before the event. We'd see other families walking in the neighborhood and after a few minutes of small talk, someone would bring up weekend plans.

"Doing anything fun this weekend?"

"Yeah, actually, I mean, sort-of. Did you hear about the airshow?"

AIRSHOWS ARE AWESOME WHEN YOU HAVE CHILDREN THAT ARE OLDER THAN 16 MONTHS. Put that in your book of important things to remember. I put it in mine.

Not only have we been busy learning about the unbelievable coolness of airshows, but we've also learned about painting. Finger painting, to be specific. All kids love it, right?

How was I supposed to know that there is probably a more age-appropriate activity for a 16 month old? Maybe I didn't have to know in advance of the activity because Connor let me know.

He made it, um, very clear.