Hello Kitty
Riley has just become a member of the elite Hello Kitty fan club. How old is Hello Kitty anyway?! I remember being fascinated with that character when I was little. We had an entire store devoted to Hello Kitty paraphernalia in our mall. I remember because I wanted ALL of it.
Zoe has two pairs of Hello Kitty shoes, and her best friend Nora went through a stage when she was also a Hello Kitty freak. The first word about Hello Kitty I’d heard from Riley though was last Thursday when I was talking to Mom on the phone and Riley said, “I need to talk to my Grandma on the phone.”
I handed the phone to my daughter and she told her Grandma, “Grandma, I need a Hello Kitty lunch box. They have some at Target.”
My child is extremely intelligent. While she knew that Mom would most certainly say, “You don’t need a Hello Kitty lunch box. You have a princess lunch box,” she knew that Grandma would say, “Well, when I get there we’ll just have to go to Target and get you one.”
Riley knew Mom and Dad were supposed to arrive on Monday, so on Friday afternoon she told her teachers, “On Tuesday, December the 18th I’m going to Target with Grandma and PaPa to get a Hello Kitty lunch box.”
On Sunday night, after their wonderful surprise arrival, Mom told Riley they could go to Target and buy that lunch box on Monday after school. Delighted that she would not need to wait until “Tuesday, December the 18th,” Riley smiled and reiterated, “On Monday after school I can go to Target with Grandma and PaPa after school and get a Hello Kitty lunch box and a Hello Kitty suitcase.” The suitcase had not been mentioned before, so Grandma and I raised our eyebrows at each other over Riley’s head and got a good laugh out loud.
Monday morning, Riley was so excited she could hardly stand it. Kevin and I had to remind her that she’d go shopping with Grandma and PaPa after school and that she needed to focus on school first. Kevin told her that she could show him her Hello Kitty lunch box when he got home from work, which caused her to giggle and nod. She left for school with a wide smile, telling us all, “I have to focus on school, and then I get to go to Target and get a Hello Kitty lunch box.”
I wish you all could’ve seen her leaving to go to Target with Mom and Dad. She was so excited that it just oozed from every limb. She couldn’t stop moving, and so off they went.
When Grandma, PaPa, and Riley returned home, Riley had a Hello Kitty book bag on wheels, a Hello Kitty jogging suit (complete with sparkling Hello Kitties on pants, shirt, and jacket), new shoes, and a gigantic Hello Kitty attache. Apparently, the Hello Kitty lunch boxes were all sold out (I hear that Uncle Scott and Aunt Monica are searching Targets all over the planet to try to fix this problem. What would Riley do without so many wonderful people who love her so much?!), so Riley compensated for this on numerous levels. The attache was apparently meant to substitute for the lunch box. Last night she nearly cried when I (open mouth insert foot) commented that this tremendous bag was in fact not a lunch box. She was alright only after multiple people assured her that she could indeed carry her sandwich, juice, and snack mix to school in an overnight bag. So this morning Riley left for school wearing the Hello Kitty jogging suit, dragging her new Hello Kitty book bag on wheels behind her, with a Hello Kitty attache (oops, I mean lunch box) slung over her arm.
Kevin took her picture for me this morning, so I will add it once I figure out where he saved it.:)
