Do you think she's obsessed?

A couple of months ago I introduced Avery to the world of Strawberry Shortcake. I saw a movie at Blockbuster, remembered how much I loved Strawberry when I was a girl and decided it was time for Avery to love her as well. I was a little disappointed that they had "modernized" my childhood friend but Avery took to the sweets filled world immediately. In fact, she became more than a little obsessed with the character. I checked out a couple of dvds and each one became a treasure to her. She would carry the dvd case everywhere. She slept with it, tried to take it in the shower, had a complete meltdown when it had to go back to the store, you get the picture. It wasn't like she wanted to watch the movie all day long, she was normally fine watching it once. It was mostly just looking at the picture on the case adoringly, like she had found her long-lost best friend.

So we're at the mall the other night, meandering around when a children's clothes display caught my eye. There was a strawberry shortcake t-shirt, a VINTAGE strawberry shortcake shirt, similar to one I distinctly remember having has a kid. I had to check it out - not knowing what a bad idea it would turn out to be. Avery spotted the shirt immediately and grabbed as many off the shelf as she could hold. She clutched them to her chest, giggling madly and chanting "strawberry shortcake." I was about to buy it when I saw the price tag, I was not about to spend $26.50 on a t-shirt! I knew we were in trouble and thought about how we could get the shirt away from her without causing a scene. I knew I couldn't reason with her about the cost so I instead tried the "they don't have your size" tactic. The salesperson could see that drama was about to unfold and bribed her with a strawberry shortcake sticker, which she happily took, but the shirt was still in her death grip. I took drastic measures - grabbed the shirt, picked her up and walked quickly out of the store. Avery came unhinged and started screaming and sobbing at the same time - "my strawberry shortcake!" It lasted a few minutes and then, luckily, she forgot about the shirt and instead concentrated on the sticker.

Last night, after she had been in bed for a little bit she started sobbing and saying "mama, I need you." Thinking the worst I rush up there to find her sitting up in her bed, huge crocodile tears running down her cheeks and barely able to catch her breath because she's been crying so hard. I asked her what's wrong and I barely caught the words "strawberry" and "sticker''. I looked all over the house, found the sticker (still on it's paper luckily) and handed it over. I seriously felt like a hero with the reaction I got from her. She laughed, hugged it and looked at me like I was the greatest person ever. She kept saying "thank you mama" and "I love you so much." She laid it carefully next to her and went to sleep. I'm going to have to keep on eye on that sticker. Who knew a little piece of paper could mean so much!