When Characters Come to Life

For his birthday, Joseph's Uncle Ty and Aunt Emily bought him an awesome book called Hello, Pistol Pete. 

At first, he was semi-interested in it.  We would read it occasionally, but it wasn't in our regular daily rotation.  About a month ago, that all changed.  I don't know if it's because we've been watching a lot of OSU sporting events or what, but Joseph suddenly fell in love with this book or, more accurately, the main character of this book.  Suddenly, he was pointing Pete (as Joseph called him) out every time he spotted him be it on TV, a sign, a shirt, or merchandise in a store (and trust me, living in Stillwater Pete is everywhere!).  A couple of weeks ago, while picking up some hair bows for Sarah at The Downtown Market, we learned that Pistol Pete would be there that coming Sunday.  Considering that Joseph was walking around the entire store waving and saying, "Hewo, Pete" I knew we had to come back for a visit. 

Fast forward to Sunday.  I dressed Joseph in a cute orange and black shirt for church knowing we had some errands to run afterwards then we were going to go see the big headed man himself.  As we walked up to the store, Joseph began pointing out every Pete he saw as predicted.  I then opened the door and Joseph froze mid-sentence.  He didn't know what to think about a living, moving Pistol Pete (even though he sees him on TV during football games).

Luckily, we were the only customers there at the time, so we had a little time to shop and let Joseph get used to Pistol Pete.  He kept his distance for a few minutes, but never took his eyes off of Pete.  After I picked out a cute top (I bet you can't guess what colors it is), Sam and Joseph attempted to approach Pete again.  He still wasn't too sure about the moving Pete.  Pistol Pete even sat on the floor and gave Joseph a bullet (spent blank) as a peace offering.

Once Joseph was OK with being that close to Pete, Sarah got in on the picture action (she was asleep and I didn't want to wake her, so she stayed in her car seat).

After taking a few pictures, we ventured to the back of the store to look at the wall of hair bows and other little girl goodies.  While we were checking out, Joseph got brave and decided to approach Pistol Pete on his own. 

It helped that the owner (I think) of the store was close by. Although once he got within touching distance, Joseph froze in his tracks.

 He did let me pick him up and carry him over to Pistol Pete for another quick picture before some other customers arrived and we left (although he didn't want to smile).

I am happy to say that we have since had another "Pitol Pete" (as Joseph now calls him) encounter and it went significantly smoother.  In fact, Joseph spotted Pistol Pete by the foot of the escalators after the basketball game the other night and acted like he wanted to go over.  As Sam approached Pete carrying Joseph, Joseph held his hand out wanting a high five then looked right at me so I could take a picture of the three of them (too bad I only had my phone with me and it turned out blurry).

I have to say, if my son is going to be obsessed with a character, I think Pistol Pete is a good choice.