Build-A-Dino

We have a new addition to the family.

Thanks to a gift card received from the Santels, Evan experienced the closest he's gonna get to having a baby. He "built" a dinosaur and has a birth certificate to prove it.

Build-A-Dino is an extension of Build-A-Bear, both located at Broadway at the Beach.  Any time I pass by the shop I witness hundreds of kids streaming in and out of the front doors - enough to keep me away.  Of course this is true for any shop at Broadway during season.  Now that we're out of season, I thought it would be a great time to experience this whole concept of building your own stuffed animal and receiving a gift card was just the motivation I needed to get me in the door.

The experience is a step-by-step process, but picking out the animal is by far the hardest part.  There are numerous bears with a random alligator, monkey or gorilla thrown in the mix.  And then of course there are the dinosaurs which are kept in another room.  This made step one a lot less painful because I simply dragged Evan into the dinosaur room leaving all those other options behind.

Evan immediately gravitated towards the purple dinosaur.  This is no surprise considering purple is currently his favorite color.  I kinda laughed under my breath because I could already see Robert's expression as Evan strolled in with this bright, sparkly dinosaur under his arm.  But in the end it was the orange/yellow dinosaur that won Evan's heart so I was able to avoid giving my usual speech which is, "Babe, he's two years old.  Quit being ridiculous."

The remaining steps in this whole process are as follows:

Step 2:  Pick out a sound box.  Some of the choices were roaring, barking, giggling, a couple of Jonas Brothers songs (ABSOLUTELY NOT!), Star Wars theme song, Happy Birthday and record your own.  Evan wanted Happy Birthday and I'm sure you can imagine how much I hate that song now.  Actually this particular version isn't so bad and it has only been a few days.  Ask me a month from now and I may consider canceling all future birthdays just to avoid hearing that song.

Step 3:  Pick out a heart.  Warm the heart by kissing it and put it inside your animal.  This was really sweet.

Step 4:  Press the machine pedal and watch the animal "come to life" (the lady fills it up with stuffing).  Evan was afraid of the large, stuffing-filled machine.  It made a loud noise as it filled up the animal.  This step took a little coaching, but we managed to get him comfortable.  The lady then sews up the seam.

Step 5:  Give your animal a bath.  This is included so that the kids can brush off any excess stuffing that may be sticking out.  Evan got into this part.

Step 6:  Create a birth certificate.  I filled out all the required info (address, birthdate, etc.) but I asked Evan what he wanted to name his dinosaur.  He took two seconds and came back with Dino.  Original, right?  I'm thinking he's been watching too much Dino Dan.

The experience was fun and I'm sure we'll do it again.  Dino is now one of six animals that sleep with Evan.  The only difference is that Dino sings Happy Birthday all...night...long.