I guess it's obvious I'm pregnant now. I got kicked off the carousel at Ocean Park this week. Okay, truth be told, I also got kicked of the balloon ride. Let me explain: On Thursday, excited about being finished subbing, I took Finley to Ocean Park (a local aquarium/zoo/theme park). We went to see the pandas and monkeys first, and got great views of one of the pandas eating bamboo. Then we went to the section of the park made for little kids, which has very low-key rides, a playground, bouncy house, etc. Finley saw another boy go on a balloon ride, where you sit in a balloon-shaped thingy and it goes up and around in a circle, like a very small ferris wheel. So he and I got on the ride to take a turn. Then an employee comes over, points at my belly and says, "You have baby?" I looked confused and replied, "Uh, yes." He said, "Sorry, you cannot ride with baby." Seriously? This ride was made for toddlers! All you have to do is sit there to ride it. In fact, Finley is actually barely tall enough to ride it by himself (being the height of the average 3-yr-old), however he is not trustworthy nor emotionally mature enough for me to let him. So I told Finley I was sorry but we could not ride it this time. I explained that apparently Mommy's belly is too big to ride it.
A little while later, I got a plan that I could just carry Finley in front of my belly to put him on the carousel (or is it a merry-go-round?), then stand there holding him on the horse with my belly against him so no one would see it. So that worked at first, but then despite my best sneaky efforts to hide the bump, the OP employee still noticed it and kicked me off! This guy spoke more English, so I was like, "Really? All it does is go around in a circle. I can't just stand here with him?" He was extremely apologetic and polite, but would not let us ride. Fortunately, Finley was extremely understanding and was happy enough to just get to sit on the horse for a few minutes. Honestly, I was just so caught off guard by it all, because these are very small, tame rides, and it is much more dangerous for me to be carrying a 30 lb Finley around OP than it would be to ride a carousel!
