Now that I'm done ranting (for the moment, anyway), here's a nice fluffy story. You can tack it on to our zoo adventure.

When you try to exit the aquarium at the Pittsburgh Zoo, you are essentially forced to walk through a little gift shop (thanks, Disney, for giving everyone that idea). That, of course, leads to all persons under three feet in height suddenly sprouting octopus arms and grabbing everything in sight. Since Alexis is a genius, she went for the biggest stuffed animals she could find.

She stumbled around carrying this bear and fish for a solid twenty minutes, risking her own life as she rammed into shelves, people, the floor, and pretty much everything else. Then I told her she had to put them back. She looked at me for a minute and then made a decision. She quickly ran over to the fish pile and threw the two-foot Nemo wannabe back where she found him. And then hugged the bear. Tight. So I told her to put him away. She hugged him some more. So I took him away and put him on the shelf myself. She giggled and smiled and was so happy to see him go. OK, that's a lie. Actually she threw a really major fit in the middle of the store. But I can dream.

So we left empty-handed. But to be honest, we had planned to buy her something on this zoo trip. We just didn't want to carry it around the whole time. So, as we were leaving, we stopped at the gift shop by the exit. Daddy grabbed a miniature version of the bear and tried to hand it to Alexis. But by then, she had already seen him. Her Bear. Her two-foot tall, greatest of all time stuffed Bear. She risked her life again, climbing over fixtures and stacks of books, and grabbed. her. Bear. Then hugged him for dear life.

And that is how Alexis got Bear. Bear is now her very best friend in the whole wide world. I think she might even like him better than Dora. She takes Bear everywhere. No one has to help her carry Bear, because she can do it herself. And when she falls because she trips on him, it's OK, he breaks her fall. Bear is the best.