handsful

Remember our trip back home to NC a few weeks ago?  I forgot to tell a story about something that happened.  Actually, I didn’t really forget, I just didn’t realize it’s significance at the time. 

After we arrived in NC, and I finished up with my orthodontist appointment (no, I’ve not found another ortho. in FL!), we decided to go out to eat.  Our families all had prior commitments for that night, so it was just us.  We ended up at Red Robin and saw that it was Kid’s Night.  This meant that a guy dressed up in a big red bird costume was going to go from table to table to “entertain” the kids.  Great…our big kids were mortified thinking he might show up at our table.  Lainey had never been around any kind of dressed-up character, but knowing she has little fear of anything, I wasn’t worried. 

We ate and talked and suddenly I look beside me and there he is, just standing there staring at Lainey.  She stares back for a minute, and then it happens….she absolutely freaks out.  Think of the face you’d make if you saw someone staring at you from outside your window at night.  That face.  And she screamed, cried, reached for me, started frantically pushing her plate away and signed “all done” over and over again.  The bird got the message and left and we tried to comfort her, convince her that the bird went “night-night”, and did our “shhhh” sign with our finger over our lips.  For the rest of the night, she kept her head down unless she was looking all around for the bird…all the while showing me the “shhhh” sign like she was saying “he’s gone, right?  night-night?!?  promise??” 

Little did I know that this incident would completely turn her off to ALL birds!?!  She hates seeing birds now, even in pictures.  We were at the grocery store, unloading the groceries into the car, and a few black birds walked by.  She went into Red Robin mode all over again…well, not AS bad, but nearly.  We’re thinking of suing the place for emotional abuse.  Think we have a shot??