Meeting Elmo: The Highlight of Ryan's life

A new Learning Express opened up in Houston this weekend in the Town and Country area. Not only is this one of my favorite stores to get toys for Ryan, but they had a big grand opening party featuring Elmo. My friend, Leslie, was kind enough to share this information with us knowing what a huge Elmo fan Ryan is. I realized that this could be the most exciting moment of Ryan's life or the most traumatic, but decided to take the risk. We talked about Elmo the entire drive there and I told him several times that Elmo was bigger than he is. In my mind I imagined that Ryan thought Elmo was his height and didn't want the size to scare him. We walked in the store and Ryan caught sight of Elmo and screamed "ELMO!". I held him for a while so he could observe the other kids. Well the second I put him down he ran to Elmo for a hug. He couldn't get enough of Elmo. He gave him high fives, kisses, many hugs, lots of smiles (none of which I got on camera). We hung out in the store for about 30 minutes or so, watching Elmo and doing a little shopping (everything is 20% off this weekend and it turns out I know the owner, so I chatted with her some). Every few minutes Ryan would run back to Elmo for another hug. It started becoming a bit of a problem. The other moms were trying to get pictures of their kids with Elmo and Ryan kept getting in the pictures. At one point Ryan was trying to kiss Elmo, but Elmo didn't even see him, see below for that cute picture. Another time Elmo had his arm around a little girl and Ryan squeezed himself under Elmo's other arm for a hug. When it was finally time to go, Ryan had to go back to Elmo for another hug and to tell him good bye. I didn't get all of this on camera b/c I was trying to regulate it a little so other kids had the chance to hug Elmo. It was definitely a very special day for Ryan and I am so happy that I took him.

First meeting

First hug

Would not take his eyes off Elmo

This was probably the third visit to Elmo (5th or 6th hug)

High five

10th hug (7th visit to Elmo)

Another high five (Elmo was very patient)

This is Ryan trying to kiss Elmo, but Elmo didn't know he was there