The Second to Last Time That I Ever Rode the Carousel

The last time the kids and I hung out at the Children's Museum of Indianapolis, we volunteered at one of our favorite stations, Build Your Own Carousel Animal:

My coworker is going significantly off-book here, tempting fate that she will not soon have a cluster of first-graders around our table clamoring to stack paper straws instead of building their nice carousel animals. 

We had big afternoon plans of driving up to the only dance supply store in driving distance that sells the specific make and model of pointe shoes that my teenager prefers, then hitting up Trader Joe's on the way home for their many delicious seasonal products (ah, the varied joys of visiting the Big City!), but first, we loitered around our favorite exhibits, seeing the dinosaurs and moseying through Greece and mooning over the hockey gear--

The Indy Fuel is our nearest minor league hockey team. We went to a game last year and it was an absolute circus; I LOVED IT!

--and, of course, riding the carousel one thousand times. Y'all know how obsessed I am with the Children's Museum of Indianapolis carousel and its bloody, bloody history (seriously, though, read this book! It's bonkers!), and on this particular day I beelined, as usual, for one of the notorious stags, then got Syd to take my picture with it:

Will loves the carousel more than anyone--

--and when she finally got off after a number of rides that I did not even count, I said to her, "Hey, this was the last time you'll ride the carousel for who knows how long!" Because, you know, she was off to college in January, and we don't usually volunteer at the museum over the summer break. 

The kids think that I am cheezy as hell whenever I say crap like that, but I'm glad that I called her attention to that last precious moment and made us acknowledge it, cheezy or not. Because that was the last time that She Who Loves That Carousel the Most will ever ride that carousel:

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You don't usually know when it's the last time that you're going to do something that you love, or the last time that you'll experience some particular precious thing. It's a gift to be able to acknowledge it and say goodbye, even if you didn't know at the time that it would be goodbye forever.

Syd and I actually happen to be volunteering at the Children's Museum again before this change takes place. I usually just ride the carousel once to Will's dozen, but this time I might have to take a page out of her book and ride multiple times. The giraffe! The antelopes! The black horse AND the appaloosa! 

And, of COURSE, my precious, notorious stag.