Preston and Build-a-Bear

There are certain things that, once you have a kid, you get super excited to get to relive through them. To see your child's eyes light up at their first Christmas tree, their first trip to the beach, their first time to  go to the zoo — these moments of childhood wonder are one of the magical parts of parenthood. So, when we went to Nashville for spring break, my mom and I were both eager to take Preston to Build-a-Bear Workshop. It would be great! He could pick out his own little buddy and see the process through from start to finish. What's not to love?

Well, apparently a lot. Build-a-Bear has changed a little since my last time in the store. There are a lot more touch screens involved in the bear building process, and those are like catnip to Preston. So, forget picking an animal; Pres much preferred touching and tapping the screens set up to help you select the bear's personality, clean him up, or give him a name. 

I was a little bummed that he didn't love it as much as I wanted him to love it. My mom and I had to prod him along the process. I would try to get him to one side of the store to pick his animal only to have him dash off to one of the other screen. In the above picture, I had to snap it quickly because Preston would throw his newly created dog (which we later named "Bud") in the floor to play with the touch screen tub. 

In the end, I think his favorite part of the whole event was the video screen at the store's front that played music and showed a little Irish-dancing bear. He would run out of the store to dance along with it. I realized I had snapped a cute little flip-book of his dance, complete with finger wag, before we left.