Bear With Me

It all started so innocently. Our babysitter wanted to take her daughter and my Sweetheart, age 3, to Build-A-Bear Workshop one day while I was at work. She wouldn't let me help pay for it--wanted to do this for the girls for fun. Sweetheart came home with Duckie, a black bear.

How fun! I hoped you liked that, Sweetheart!

We didn't darken the door of Build-A-Bear again except to wave at the moving bear in the window, until Sweetheart was turning 5. That's what she wanted to do for her birthday and we arranged for her cousin to meet her at the mall and they would make Build-A-Bears together. Then, her cousin got sick. But you know we took her anyway because that would have been heartbreaking. Trixie, the brown rabbit came to live at our house.

Then Sweetheart got invited to a Build-A-Bear birthday party where the host parents buy all the girls a bear and accessory. Great, it's free? Yes, you can go. Vanilla, a small white bear came to live at our house.

Sweetheart and her best friend (the old babysitter's daughter) wanted to go to Build-A-Bear for their 6th birthdays (they are 9 days apart). We talked them into taking Duckie and Firetruck (her friend's bear--they were identical) back to Build-A-Bear and just fluffing them in the bathtub and getting them new accessories. MUCH cheaper! So it was on that day that Duckie and Firetruck underwent a sex-change operation and came home named "Princess" and "Princess" and wearing a wig and Hello Kitty panties. Oh yeah, and some clothes on top of those panties.

ENOUGH BUILD-A-BEAR!!!! I screamed. And I meant it too.

Then an unfortunate occurrence, um, occurred. Little Bit broke her arm in the Toys R Us play place the night before her cousin's birthday party last summer. The birthday party was out at my sister's house and they were supposed to go to Teddy Bear Adoption Center (a Build-A-Bear knock-off, very cute animals there). They were so excited and then the broken arm kind of messed that plan up. My sister, ironically, took her daughter anyway because that would have, of course, been heartbreaking. And I said, "See? That's how we felt when you got sick before Sweetheart's 5th birthday!" No. I didn't. I said, "Take her. We'll worry about our girls' trauma of not getting to go."

I held off on the going to Build-a-Bear thing for a few weeks. Then, mid-summer with nothing to do (no swimming, no parks, no swings, no jumpy places, no nothing because of the broken arm!) my husband said, "Take them." Spotted, the asthma friendly dog and Orange Juice the cat came to live at our house. This was Little Bit's first Build-a-Bear experience and she was thrilled!

Now we are really done! I said.

Then Little Bit kind of developed an obsession with her sister's dog, Spotted. She loved him. She wanted him. She carried him everywhere. She asked for one. She talked about him. She drove us slowly insane. It was during this time that we really, really caved. Little Bit was having all sorts of problems from what we would later find out was Tourette's Syndrome. We were very worried about her. The tics were really bad. The leaning toward OCD was really looking permanent. She would not stop worrying about that dog. Husband finally said, "Go get her one today!" So, I rationalized, she's only been there once. It's OK for her to go again! C.C., the identical twin of Spotted, came to live at our house.

OK! I announced. ENOUGH Build-a-Bear!!!!!

Then Sweetheart's Girl Scout troop went camping. I went with her. Little Bit was not too happy. I promised her that she and Daddy would do something fun while we were gone.

Bet you can't guess where they went?

Brownie, the little brown bear with more accessories than you can shake a stick at, came to live at our house.

Oh, but I'm not through!

I then found out that Sweetheart's troop sold enough cookies that they all get to go to Build-a-Bear and get a $10 bear and $10 worth of accessories! OH BOY! CAN SOMEONE PLEASE PUT ME OUT OF MY MISERY? We are going today.

And of course Little Bit is coming too. But she is NOT, I repeat, NOT getting a new bear. We are loading up Orange Juice, C.C, and Brownie into her stroller and taking them for a fluff in the bathtub and a new accessory--ten dollar maximum.

I really mean it. And then we are through, OK?