Welcome Home Cottontail.

Like most places in the country, we had a cold and rainy weekend.  On Friday, after feeling a little bit of cabin fever, we decided to get out and go to Mall of America for something fun.  We all bundled up in our warm stuff, because seriously it's been in the low 50's here, and headed out!

It didn't take long for me to start filling up our stroller with stuff for this little peanut!  We found hats, socks, the cutest halloween costume in the world, and then...

WE LOST OUR MINDS.

We were on a mission for pretzel bites when we passed the storefront for "Build A Bear."  We let Ava look at all the stuffed animals in the window and to our surprise, she started leaning toward them, talking and grinning at each one.  It was so darn cute.  

And then I said it.  

I told Travis, "I kind of want to take her in there and build her a bear."  I honestly thought he would laugh and talk some reason into me, but then HE said it.  

He told me, "I do too!"  

Can you say "FIRST TIME PARENTS???"  Although we would love to believe that we made our little girl's dreams come true that night, she had no idea what we were doing!  But, we did make our parenting dreams come true :) We happily walked through each step of the build a bear process and presented her with the sweetest little bunny at the end.  Like some kind of parenting rite of passage, we acted like fools, spent our hard earned money and tried to convince Ava that she's always wanted a bunny (we) named, Cottontail.

And yes, we bought it all...hook, line and sinker.

After we decided that she loved the bunny the most (actually, if we're honest, WE loved the bunny the most) we got in line to have it stuffed.  

And then we learned more than we ever cared to know about the history of "Build A Bear."

And after carefully choosing the little heart we wanted to enclose, Ava's new bunny was ready for a kiss, which she does not know how to give :)  

We managed to escape without any outfits or props for this little bunny (we do have some common sense) but we did labor over the details of the "birth certificate" that came with it!  You should have seen us discuss what to name this bunny-it's Cottontail for the record.  I'm sure we sounded ridiculous!  But, anything for Ava, right??  Doesn't she look thrilled??  

Ok, so we may have lost her interest in the store, but once we all got home and got her ready for bed, she loved her new bunny!  She kept talking to it and trying to lick it.  Yeah, I'm not sure what that means, but we're taking it as a sign of love!  

So, we have a new little member of the family and another stuffed animal for Ava's room.

I'm sure it won't be our last visit to "Build A Bear" but it probably won't be as exciting for Travis and I as it was this weekend.  Seriously, we were into it.  It's amazing what parenthood will do to you!!

Have we ever mentioned that we LOVE having this little girl in our lives??