Sea World and Sonora's Love-Hate Relationship with Elmo

Here is Sonora waving at Elmo on a sign. She even kissed the dirty sign. She was begging to stay near the sign, keep touching the sign. All she said over and over was "Elmo ... Elmo" She has never seen Elmo on TV ... my mom bought her an Elmo Christmas stocking and that's all it took! So I decide to be the coolest mom ever and let her meet Elmo in person. She goes to Disneyland all the time and kissed Mickey on the nose. She is not afraid of large characters ... well, she wasn't ... until ...she saw Elmo! She started to cry and wanted outta there so fast. Then when I walked away and said, "bye bye Elmo" she began to cry harder screaming, "More Elmo! Elmooo! More! More! Elmooo"
So I went back ...and she freaked out again ... so then I talked the photographer into being ready on stand-by with the camera and I got Elmo to leave his/her post so Sonora would just feel comfortable talking to me in front of the green screen.

I got Elmo to sneak behind her to capture a picture and then ... She turns around just before they could capture the one where she was smiling and all hell broke loose! So, to all who are wondering, no, I did not force my daughter to face an Elmo-nightmare extraordinaire!

And the ironic thing is, this MONSTER blue whale came up right to her face and she didn't even flinch! I took a step back and forgot to shoot the picture, he was covering the entire window. I got right before and right after, but I was intimidated when he swam right for us, but Sonora was like "cool!" I just don't get it ...