In Hot Pursuit

Little Chic is not the traditional dolly-loving, toy-toting kind of girly-girl. She is more likely to be found designing some type of wardrobe out of scarves and plastic Walmart bags or singing in her room to her karoke machine with her plug-in disco ball rolling. She does, however have a soft spot for cats. Real ones. Stuffed ones. Plastic ones. Large ones. Small ones. What's more, she has always had a lifelong ambition (okay, well for the last 6 of her 9 years anyway) to be a veterinarian. She has a deal with Best Friend Forever that BFF will open a pet rescue center and Little Chic will treat all the animals.

So when Hasbro came out with the Littlest Pet Shop series, Little Chic gravitated right toward all those thumb-sized kittens they carry. This particular toy hit upon two interests of Little Chic's - cats and collecting. She collects anything....everything from pretty rocks to store receipts. The fact that Littlest Pet Shop has some animals that they call "limited editions" makes them acceptable to her, even if they aren't cats, since she can "collect" them.

To put this in perspective, I am not the "run around driving yourself crazy to make your kids happy with something they want" kind of mom. What's more, I detest collections of any kind (well, except for books). But as a result of a collecting frenzy that was recently started with some birthday money that Little Chic has, we've been in hot pursuit of a particular horse that she declares is "very rare". I wouldn't even have entered into the frenzy at all, but Saturday night we were at the mall and I spied the coveted horse (only I didn't know it was coveted at that point.) I mentioned the horse to Little Chic, she seemed to turn up her nose at it, and we went on our way. Upon returning home, we opened the large poster showing the available figurines, and I nonchalantly pointed out the horse I'd seen. Horrified, Little Chic demanded to know why I hadn't told her I'd seen it. Being the good sport that I am, I offered to trot back to the mall on Monday while she was at school. As collecting luck would have it, the horse was long gone. Apparently there is more than one collector of this little item. I began to feel the adrenaline pumping with the promise of a contest - kind of like Amazing Race: LPS Version. The nice clerk told me that shipments come in every Wednesday and that I am welcome to call to see what they have. Game on.

It's Wednesday. As soon as Little Chic got home, we called K Bee Toys. Delivery truck hadn't arrived yet. Nice Clerk offered to call me when it came in. Two hours later, Nice Clerk called declaring that the truck arrived, and that a single pony was in the shipment. I asked if she was allowed to hold it. She was. Dinner is over and now we are just waiting for Brainy Boy to finish his homework (we're trying not to breathe down his neck) so we can win the prize....I mean, buy the toy. Frankly, it does seem like it would be a lot easier to order it online, but it wouldn't be half the fun. Plus, the mall is halfway to Coldstone Creamery....