In a jam

Yesterday, my crazy husband was off running 21 miles, training for a marathon he's running in a few weeks. This meant that WCK and I had the morning all to ourselves, so I decided to take her on a mother-daughter date to Jiggle Jam. Jiggle Jam is a huge children's music festival held every Memorial Day weekend at Crown Center in Kansas City. It was founded by local celebrity Mr. Stinky Feet. We'd never been to Jiggle Jam before, and I'm not sure why, because It. Was. Awesome. Mr. Stinky Feet, is there anything you can't do?

There were a bunch of those inflatable bouncy things, and a rock-star tent where the kids could play little instruments, dress up in rock-star clothes, and get photos taken inside a photo booth. We took off our shoes and dangled our toes in one of the Crown Center fountains, sat under a tree and ate Minsky's pizza and a dish of chocolate Italian Ice. We stopped by one of the vendor booths and bought a pair of green fairy wings. We made crafts and played with bubbles. We saw several different shows, including a Funky Mama concert (she's the female equivalent of Mr. Stinky Feet), a really cool puppet show, and a really great show put on by Martin City Melodrama. The theme of the show was fairy tales from all around the world where the princess/female character is the hero of the story and saves the day herself instead of waiting for Prince Charming. We both really enjoyed it.

There was only one dark moment on our otherwise great day: The kiddie train.

Jiggle Jam featured a tiny train for the kids to ride that made a very slow, very tiny, approximately 30-second loop right in front of Crown Center. WCK saw a photo of the train on the Jiggle Jam web site and proclaimed that she had to ride the train. We saw the train in person, and she proclaimed that she had to ride the train. I purchased a $2 ticket for said train, we waited in line for the train, we got ready to board the train, and then ....

WCK proclaimed the train was "scary."

Never mind that WCK has ridden trains like this a million times in the past. Never mind that just last weekend at a birthday party, WCK rode a fully grown, real-live horse all by herself. Never mind that WCK is now a preschool graduate and everyone else who had calmly boarded the train without assistance was approximately 2 years old. This tiny little train was suddenly the Most Terrifying Thing in the World.

After two different attempts to board the train, I was becoming irritable, mostly because I'd paid $2 for a 30-second train ride, which, if you think about it, is like charging $240 an hour to ride this dang train. I said that if WCK was going to be too tired and cranky to board the train, then we were leaving and going home right that second, even though that meant that WCK would not be allowed to change into her swimsuit and play on the Crown Center spraygrounds. The chance to play on the spraygrounds had been WCK's lifelong dream, ever since she first heard about it, approximately two hours earlier that day. (Mother-of-the-Year-Award Committee, please contact me to get my home address for the mailing of my plaque.)

Finally, the train conductor suggested that I walk/jog alongside the train and hold WCK's hand. WCK agreed to these terms. So, there I was, doing the Jiggle Jam Walk of Shame alongside the miniature train, wondering how I'd explain to paramedics about a little train running over my feet, enduring the quiet stares of judgement from the two-year-olds who rode without hand-holding assistance. Fortunately, my walk/jog only lasted 30 seconds. Then WCK announced she wanted to go again. Um. No.

But we were able to put the train ugliness behind us, and WCK changed into her swimsuit and played in the fountain, which, I have to say, looked like the most fun thing in the whole entire world. By the end, we were both too worn out to stay for the big Stinky Feet concert at the end of the day. As we headed toward the car, I asked WCK about her favorite part of Jiggle Jam.

"The train!" she said.

Yeah.