Animals! Acrobats! Face Painting too!

It must be the Pittsburgh International Children's Festival! We had a big fun day on Thursday, and Miles crept out of his comfort zone, into the petting zoo! We stopped by once when we first got to the festival, and he barely touched any of the adorable baby goats or sheep. But later, when his friend Emily was along, he wanted to join in the feeding frenzy! We bought an extremely overpriced cup of food and he walked around letting various animals have a taste. He even started putting the food on his hand for them eat from. Then he branched out to feeding hay to sleeping animals. I told him they probably weren't interested in eating, but he said he wanted them to have something to munch on when they woke up!

We also took in a show, in a theater! This is another anxiety-heightening experience for Miles and when we first were allowed to enter the theater, and everyone was filing in, he didn't want to go. I persuaded him, and we found our seats. He shared my lap with Ruby and we waited for the theater to fill up and the show to start. When the lights went down and he heard the announcement about where to find the restroom if anyone needed to leave during the performance, he suddenly had the urge to  go potty. We stayed....and waited for the acrobats. They finally came out, emerging from a webbed structure on the stage. First we saw only fingers, then hands, feet, faces, and finally whole people. It was a bit too much waiting for him, and he was a bit scared still, but he finally relaxed and really did enjoy the show. They did lots of "funny tricks" like supporting each other (2 people balancing on top of one person in various arrangements), pretending to fall and then catching themselves, flips, handsprings, that kind of stuff. After the show he said he liked it and that he was "proud of the acrobats." I was proud of him too.