Passing The Teddy Bear Torch

When I was a kid, I loved my teddy bear Billy William Bear with all my heart. H was given to me when I was two or three, and being given Billy, with a bright yellow ribbon around his neck is one of my earliest memories. I imagined that he was actually real and that when I turned my back, he came to life only to go still when I looked at him again. I used to whisper into his enormous ears "if you're real, give me a sign", and then stare intently to try to detect any movement. I would place little hotel honey jars in front of him, turn my back for a couple of minutes and then check to see how much honey he'd eaten. He was pretty crafty, never actually letting me see him move, and he also had great willpower because he never ate the honey. Or at least not too much of it.

I took Billy with me everywhere and he always snuggled with me at night, making me feel safe and comforted. He came with me to university, where Gillian mocked him and told me he looked like a rat -but you should have seen HER stuffed animal! She was a very cruel friend to her dog or donkey - what was it Gilli? - and slept with her head ON him, so he was flat as a board. I seem to recall that he always looked a little annoyed with his lot in life. But anyway, I digress. When I moved back to Canada to live with Mark, Billy came with me and he slept on our bed next to Mark's faithful friend, Pandini. I've always had a soft spot for Pandini, mainly because when you shake him up and down, he does an awesome arm dance. They became good friends and Billy taught Pandini the freeze-she's-looking-to-see-if-we're-real game.

But then we got a dog who liked all things fuzzy and I realised that it was time to be a grown up and put my friend away. With a heavy heart, and a lot of "I'm sorry"s, Mark and I put the bears into a closet and shut the door. Sigh.

But then we had babies. Yay! And these babies have become toddlers who've started playing with their teddy bears. Every night they request their Bah-bee - Owen actually says "Poor Geffy", even if that is his brother's baby - and their stuffed cat from Anindita & Christopher. So this weekend, as Mark was cleaning out one of our closets, he pulled out our bears and showed them to the boys. Lo and behold, these guys have suddenly become highly requested at night. I can't help but melt a little when I hear them asking for the bears by name. So imagine my complete and utter happiness and meltiness when I went into the boys' room tonight to check on them and found this adorable scene:

Owen and Billy snuggling away



William either being suffocated by Pandini or having a really nice cuddle.


Here is the side view


I'm so happy the bears are being loved again and suddenly feel like all is right in the teddy bear world. Oh, and by the way, we did move Pandini to a safer, less suffocating position, like the end of the bed.