Growing Pains

We did it! Today Brent boiled the stockpile of binkies and put them in storage to be pulled out at the appropriate time when our next girl is of age. It was rough... Liesel's been desperately asking for one and she didn't nap quite as long as she normally would have. In the car it was a challenge to listen to her fussing without just plugging her up. But it has to be done.

To soften the blow, we decided to take her to Build-A-Bear and make good use of the $25 gift card she received for Christmas. If you aren't familiar with Build-A-Bear, let me enlighten you. First you choose the animal (Liesel didn't seem to really care so I snagged the last bunny they had). Then you stuff it. At first the loud noise threw her but then she enjoyed pressing the pedal and she really loved watching the stuffing roll around in the machine:

You pick out a heart and give it a kiss:They sew it up for you and then you "bathe" and "fluff" it:
You pick out an outfit and dress it. Liesel loved this part. In the end, we went for the pink Red Sox outfit and Brent let me splurge on Sketcher shoes after seeing Liesel light up at spying them:

Then you fill out the birth certificate. One of Liesel's best buddies at daycare is Gabriella. Whenever the two are in the same proximity, they just gravitate towards each other. They love to run and squeal and "read" to each other. Their teachers tell me it's almost like they're gossiping when they go off together and have conversations just the two of them. In fact, Gabriella is the answer to about every third question she's asked these days (no kidding, in the video Brent asks her three questions and the answer to the third one is "Gabriella"). The funny thing is we were getting a Red Sox bunny and Gabriella's mother works for the Red Sox. How fitting!

To be honest, it was getting close to Liesel's bedtime and she was nearing meltdown mode... especially without a binkie. As we finished up she wanted nothing to do with "Beantown Bunny" but once we got home she begged for it as we put her down. I did the whole Build-A-Bear experience with Liesel when we went to Disneyland so I let Brent take the lead with this round. As I paid the balance, he encouraged me to sign up for the Build-A-Bear card so after a bazillion visits we can get a 10% discount. I'm excited to know he thought it was worth the experience to come back because I love the concept. I hope Liesel does too. Enough to forget about her binkie anyway.