It’s funny how doing the same thing over and over can somehow be a different experience each time. With family traditions, it seems that we always forget the actual logistics of each year and simply remember them as “The Year That ________.” The Year that I Got a Puppy for Christmas. The Year We Went to Florida for Thanksgiving. The Year I Dressed Up Like Rainbow Brite for Halloween. The Year It Rained All Week at The Beach.
Well, this year’s annual visit to have Pancakes with Priscilla the Pink Pig will forever be known as “The Year Cricket Got Sick.” Last night my little baby was feverish and restless, so Ryan stayed home to give her some much needed daddy snuggles while Emma Vance, my mom and I ventured down into the city to hang out with Priscilla. (I guess we *could* take a positive view and call it “The Year that Only The Big Girls Went…”)
Although I was sad to leave a sick baby behind, I do have to say that it was unusually peaceful to only have one child to worry about, haha! The morning started out rainy, but quickly moved to heavily humid. (Yuck.) As we drove through the city, E.V. exclaimed, “These houses are WEIRD!” Well, dear, that’s because they’re buildings, not houses. #suburbanchild Maybe we need to start culturing our countrified kids a bit more… ;)
We’ve been talking about going to see Priscilla all week, and so by Friday E.V. jibber jabbered about the upcoming breakfast to anyone who would listen. At some point I realized that she thought we were going to be having pancakes with an ACTUAL pig, so I started describing Priscilla to her so as not to have a disappointed toddler on my hands. She’s reeeeeally tall, like taller than a mommy! And she wears a skirt and a hair bow and a pearl necklace, too. She’s so pretty! She’s going to want to hug you!
Too bad it didn’t work.
As soon as we got there, she froze. FROZE. Oh, well, it was worth a try! ;) She wouldn’t even go near Priscilla, and seemed to keep a distrusting eye on the mascot all morning, She did love the big blow up Priscilla outside, the face (hand) painting, the marshmallows and the actual train ride thankfully. Emma Vance especially adored the train in particular, yelling that it was “so fun” to the conductor mid-ride and then insisting we take a second trip around using Ryan and Cricket’s unused tickets. I guess, then, it wasn’t too shabby of a time. We do hope, though, that next year isn’t “The Year Cricket Got Sick Again” and that Daddy and Baby Sister are able to be with us. ;)
