Here is the story of this trip: We randomly stumbled upon the flagship American Girl Place -- the American Girl store, in other words. It's amazing. Four stories of babies and accessories. So, we decided to go in. We had our hearts set to buy lainey a new American Girl doll so we strolled up to the fourth floor where the Bitty Babies are to pick out a new one. Well, as soon as we got up there, she found "her" baby. She has the Bitty Baby with blue eyes and light brown hair. So she proceeded to grab "her" baby off the shelf and play with the stroller they had set out. In all of this, I realized I stupidly left her Bitty Baby at the apartment where we were staying. We decided to get an outfit and the stroller and in the process, went to take the doll she had claimed away from her....and that's when it happened. My child, for the first time ever, threw herself on the ground in a fit of desperation.
Here is what I try to explain to B...She was not crying because she wanted us to buy her anything. She was perfectly content with "her" baby and didn't care to even get a new toy. She was heartbroken, and it was gut wrenching to watch, because she had to leave "her" baby with the store clerk. For the first time ever, we carried her out of the store kicking and screaming "No, my baby, my baby! Please, my baby, daddy, please!"
It was one of the saddest things I've seen. How do you eplain to a 19 month old that that wasn't "her" baby. It looked the same and even had on the same clothes. It was horrible!
So, as of course I would, we went back to the apartment and I called American Girl, made a reservation for lunch and we went back the next day, this time, with her baby, named Chloe, in hand. We had an amazing time! We shopped, had lunch, and dressed the Lainey to match her Bitty Baby. It was a perfect day and exactly the experience I had hoped she would have. She loves her baby, stroller and new pup, Coconut.
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| Here is Lainey and Bitty Baby Chloe after lunch, ready to hit the NYC streets! The rest of our trip was pretty relaxing, and we took Chloe with us everywhere we went, just in case. |
This is on the ferris wheel in Toys R Us. She couldn't take her eyes off the sights long enough to get a picture but she LOVED it.
Trying to enjoy the cab ride! This was about 3 minutes before our cab drive flipped off a cop and we got pulled over. We got a free cab ride in exchange for his "aggressive behavior in the presence of a baby".
We figured she was on vacation, too. Doughnuts and chocolate milk for breakfast!
Another highlight, the Naked Cowboy. My kid liked him waaay too much. Waaaaay too much!
