The Tale of the Three Bears

Anyone who has met SJ knows of her Bear. SJ received her first Bear before she was born. It was a gift from one of my coworkers. Taking a hint from some friends we started giving SJ her Bear when it was sleep time hoping she would start to associate the 2 and make going to sleep easier. As SJ has gotten older her Bear has become a sleep time and any-other-time friend. She take Bear most places, reads to Bear, plays with Bear, and still sleeps with Bear.

When I realized that Bear's cleaning instructions were for hand washing only I decided to purchase some extra Bears to have as a back up in case something dreadful happened to the original Bear. Thus SJ now has 4 Bears: 3 in use and 1 in back up. I have tried to really keep only one Bear in current circulation and then bring out a new one when one needs laundered (thankfully they do hold up quite well to machine washing!) But, SJ seems to have a way of finding Bears that are in holding, therefore, there are often 3 Bears about.

Each of the current 3 Bears now has a name. There is Girl Bear, Daddy Bear (I think she named it Daddy Bear because the pink bow fell off,) and Mama Bear (a.k.a. School Bear - as we were hoping she could just keep one Bear at daycare for naps, but she can't bear the 5 min drive to daycare without a Bear from home.) Her favorite is Girl Bear and she can spot Girl Bear from a distance. Don't even think about substituting Mama or Daddy for Girl! I'm not sure if I'll ever get Daddy and Mama back into holding, but next laundry day I'll try. For now though she is happy with all 3!