We went to Cedar Point on Saturday with Lex. He had a great time and I think he rode more rides than he has on any other visit. The big news of the day was Lex conquered his first adult “thrill” ride. He has done the train, the antique cars, and the turnpike cars – but beyond that, he had not ridden any of the other adult rides. That changed with two new additions.

The first was the Calypso. We played a few of “yes, I will go on it” and “there is no way I’m going near that”. It went so far that once we were boarding he gave a big nope. I carried him over the exit gate and let him off with Xie. Then he saw I was going to ride it still and wanted to try. So I went back and got him and took out seat.

The ride attendant came up and he said he wanted to get off. She then asked him if he was sure, and he said he wanted to stay. After she left I told Lex he was committed. The ride started and he flipped. He said it was too fast. I just held him extremely close and tight so he wouldn’t try anything that would make sense for a three and half-year-old. He griped the whole time, but we made it through the ride with no injuries.

When the ride was done he was moving quickly to get off the ride. This is the exact opposite behavior that occurs when he rides something in Kiddie Land. When he made it back to Xie he climbed into her arms. She asked if he had fun. He said yes. She asked if he would ride it again. He said when he is bigger.

The second adult ride we went on together was Dodgem. Which is the standard bumper car ride. The big deal with this was that he actually had to wait in line. In other rides like the Antique cars or the kiddie rides, he is usually just moving through a line or walking on. This was not the case for the bumper cars.

We had to wait for five or six ride cycles. Every single time Lex said, “I’m ready Daddy.” Each time I had to explain to him we had to wait our turn. We were in line for a little over half an hour. He loved the ride and insisted on steering. He would also get quite angry at me when I whipped the steering wheel around to get him unstuck. Unlike Calypso, he wanted to do the Dodgems again. I told him we would do it another day.