Easter Bunny Introduction

The other day I blogged about how I had taken Tommy to the mall to play with the trains at the bookstore and then go to the pet store. Well when we realized the pet store was closed, I had to think fast. I told him we could walk around the mall and see if there was anything else fun in there. It's a pretty dead mall that makes newspaper headlines because it has trouble paying to keep the lights on, so there was a slim chance of anything else fun being there.

But I was wrong. There, right in the middle of the mall was the Easter Bunny. It looked pretty pathetic, sitting there all alone reading a magazine. I guess there was a shortage of kids that day. But when I pointed him out to Tommy (realizing that was a bad idea as soon as the words left my mouth), my little guy just completely melted down. There was a look of absolute terror on his face and he immediately pulled his hand away from mine and sat on the floor and cried, saying he didn't want to go any farther. So I picked him up and told him it was ok and we kept walking. He was really nervous the whole time and in my head I was realizing that we'd have to pass the giant rabbit again. I thought about leaving through one of the stores and just walking around the parking lot (in the rain) until we found our car. But then I dismissed that idea as ridiculous.

So we turned around again and bravely headed back to the Bunny. It was about a 5 minute walk from where we were and he insisted that I carry him the entire time. He buried his head in my neck but occasionally would peek through to see if he could catch a glimpse. When we got past the Easter Bunny, he looked behind us and said "Wook Mommy it's the Easter Bunny! He's reading a book! I'm happy now" (big smile). I put him down and the whole way out and half the drive home he talked about how he went to see the Easter Bunny and talked to him and next time he's going to sit on his lap. I asked him if he wanted to turn around and see him again, though, and he promptly shook his head and said "no".