300

Went to the CNE after about 10 years! Hans' first time! We were accompanied by my friend C and my new friend K (from the paternal "motherland") and their respective sons - 3 moms and 3 boys. We were there for about 10 hours and spent almost all the cash we had on us! Believe it or not, for the stuff we ate and for the stuff we brought back, it felt like a small fortune. But the memories we made will be priceless forever!

Welcome to the 300th post. Usually, it would be about Momley. This one is about the boys and how happy they make me.

One of the reasons I planned the trip to the CNE was the fact that ASid was working there this year. I wanted to see his first workplace and capture a milestone in his life. Craigley reminded me that it is simply the CNE and nothing special! It may be so, but that was immaterial for me.

When ASid heard about me wanting to drop by, he reacted quite adversely stating that he'd rather I not make the trip! I am not sure what he was thinking; however, after his one and only one day of training, he himself forwarded a discount code to the CNE to me and also gave permission to share with my friends!

Well, I would never set forth to embarrass ASid on purpose. Even when we got to the Food Building, I showed my friends ASid's booth from a distance. We got our food and we settled down to eat, and then, my phone rang. It was ASid! He wanted to know where we were and to my pleasant surprise, he came by to join us for lunch.

While the drama was unfolding with one boy, the other boy had his own drama happening.

Hans did not want to go on most rides. The other 2 boys were younger than him and were fearlessly going on all the rides. Hans was quite OK with that! He was only concerned that I was disappointed in him. At the beginning, it did get me upset and then I calmed down. I had to step back and look at it from his perspective. He was with friends and he was not afraid to say no to them. If Hans is able to overcome peer pressure and stand his ground, I should be supportive of it and not have an unnecessary emotional outburst!

Both the boys demonstrate a reflective side that I personally value in others. The ability to look back on our actions and make amends when necessary is wonderful. Both boys also don't seem to care about what people think of them. They are content with who they are and with the choices they make. I hope these are character traits that stay with them for the rest of their lives.

On that note, I would like to conclude this post by sharing a personal Momley moment.

At the CNE, there is lots of fun stuff to do. Toward the end, the boys wanted to ensure that they brought back home a substantial amount of loot. So, we decided to spend our last bit of money at one particular game booth. There was this girl who claimed to guess the age or weight or birth month of a person. The first 2 things would be guessed within 3 years or 3 pounds of the actual age or weight, and the last within 2 months of the actual birth month. I knew I could totally win the prize for Hans. People usually think I am 10 years older than my actual age! This girl made me 12 years older. When she realized I was only 44, she was apologetic. She should have just stopped there, but she proceeded to ask me about my background and once I told her, she exclaimed, "But you all age so well!"

And yes, lucky for me that I do not care when people think I am a high school dropout or a nanny or a grandma.