That's My Girl

Danica was wearing her Star Wars t-shirt today (which can be seen here) when we went to the mall to walk around a bit. We stopped by Borders so she could take a look at the books there when she spotted a DK reader (this one, actually – and no, we don’t need it, so don’t buy it).

Girl: “Daddy, dis Wall-E book?”

Dad: “No sweetie, that’s actually a Star Wars book. Good taste, though.”

G: [Clutching the book to her chest] “It match my shirt!”

D: ***Warm, fuzzy feeling***

* * *

I actually wanted to go down to the mall so that I could see if Danica would ride the kiddie train they have set up for the holidays. I got the idea after I saw my buddy Don’s kids in a picture he put up on his site. I knew going in that the downside would be that she would have to ride the train by herself, since the maximum height on the train is fifty inches.

I’d told her earlier in the day that we were going to see trains, so she was excited about it. When we got to the area where the train was, I had her watch for a while to get her comfortable with it. She was excited about seeing it, so I asked if she wanted to ride it. She responded with a yes, but I told her that she’d have to ride all by herself and that Daddy couldn’t go on with her. She responded that she was scared, which is something that she’s picked up over the last couple of months. I’ll have to write more about it some other time.

Anyway, I told her that there was nothing to be scared of and asked her if she wanted to ride the train. She said she wanted to, so I explained again that I couldn’t go on with her and that she would have to ride by herself. I had her watch a group of kids get on, explained to her what was happening, and talked her through the whole thing as the train went around for a while.

Things seemed good, so I we went to the entrance to wait. When it was her group’s turn (there were only three of us in line), I handed her a dollar to give to the kid who was handing out tickets. She handed it to him no problem, went through the gate onto the little platform they have, and then I took Colin around to opposite side of the platform where the exit was (FYI, the “platform” was a little 4x8 foot gazebo-like structure with the entrance gate on one side of the rectangle, and the exit on the other side of the rectangle – not very big).

So the three kids in the group were standing at the platform, waiting for the girl who strapped the kids into their seats to let them on the train. They were ready to get on but Danica just stood there, so the girl leaned over and asked her if everything was okay. Of course, at that point, things went downhill and were clearly not okay. The Girl burst into tears, and that was that. *Sigh*

In hindsight, it might have helped if I’d taken her on the train, but I think she would’ve freaked when I left. I think the only way she would’ve done it is if she’d had a friend to go on it with her. I tried talking her into trying again, but she wasn’t feeling it. We walked around for a bit and came back before we left. In fact, she said she wanted to ride the train, but when I mentioned that I couldn’t go on it with her, she became reluctant again.

Truth be told, I’m just disappointed that she has the same personality I do – headstrong but insecure. Here’s hoping we can overcome that.