Tales from my phone ... Reggie the Redbird

A few weeks ago we took the kids to see a basketball game at the local state university.  Jenna received a couple of free tickets from her school, and we decided that it would be a good family outing on a cold Sunday afternoon.

We got there early and found our seats in the nosebleed section.  The kids were excited, and loved watching all of the activity and commotion and music.  The girls were in awe of the cheerleaders and dancers, all 3 of them danced to the band's music, and they loved watching the silly school mascot's antics from afar.  That funny Redbird named Reggie was dancing and skipping all over the court during the pre-game show.

Side note:  After the rousing introductions, the dramatic tip-off, and the first 5 minutes of play, Kara leaned over and asked me when the game was going to start.  Perhaps they're still a bit young for sporting events?

After the 1st quarter (long after the $10 worth of popcorn had been dumped on the stadium floor and the mega Sprite had been consumed) we could no longer spot Reggie the Redbird.  The kids wondered aloud where he had gone?  The bathroom?  The concession stand?  The locker room?

The answer became apparent when he walked up and plopped himself into the empty seats in front of us.

Mark and I held our breath.  Up close, the silly bird was actually quite angry and menacing looking. 

For as long as we could remember, mascots or characters or Santa or the Easter bunny or basically any adult in a costume would send Kara into hysterics.  It began at her first birthday outing to see a Sox game, and continued every time we went to Chuck E Cheese or a community event that featured local mascots for entertainment.



 As luck would have it, she's over that now! 

Apparently our spring trip to Disney cured her fear of larger-than-life characters.  I'm sure there's some fancy psychological explanation, but it most likely has something to do with the fact that she met about 999 characters while at Disney, and posed for pictures with all of them after getting them to sign her autograph book. 

After a few high fives, they were all willing to pose for a picture with their new friend, Reggie.

I only wish I had brought my actual camera to capture the photos.  But, once again, thank goodness for the camera phone : )