Monday, November 2, 2009

The Tattered Teddy

Sadie was not happy with Mommy today. See this look? ---->
I got it a lot!

Last week we decided that we were going to have a fun family day on Monday. We started out by going to Mass, where Sadie sat like a little angel (she's been getting better each week at sitting quietly and she spends most of Mass on Daddy's lap these days). Then we went to the post office and did some errands. Since we were planning on having lunch in town we had time to burn, so we headed over to the park where Sadie played in the leaves and swung on the swings, but it was still very cold and a little damp and so we got back in the car and tried to think of a way to spend the next hour.

There's a mercantile mall in town that we'd never been to, although it's been open for quite a while, and we decided to check it out. It had tons of neat antiques (although we weren't actually shopping) and Sadie enjoyed being carried around by Daddy, until she saw it. "It" in this case was a large, old, ratty brown teddy bear that someone (who has a loose grip on reality) thought they could sell for $15. I'm not sure they would be able to give the bear away if they tried.

Sadie pleaded and begged to be put down to see the bear. And then I made the mistake of the day. I picked it up. I was holding Sadie at this point and I don't know how I couldn't see that picking up the bear would be a terrible idea. I thought that she could play with it for a few minutes, while Paul looked around a bit more and then we'd head home.

Sadie kissed the bear. She hugged it. She snuggled it's tattered old face. After a while I pried it away from her and said "okay, we have to say goodbye to the bear. Let's put him back in the chair. Bye, bye bear." And then the screaming started. After a minute Paul decided to give cheering her up a try and lifted her into his arms for a game of peekaboo in front of a mirror. She calmed down a bit, although there was an occasional sob. A bit more time passed and I thought it might be safe to approach. I walked over and asked Paul if he'd seen something. And then the tears started again. I was the bad guy! I'd taken the bear away!

She forgave me a few minutes later, but only barely. It is clear that I'm not to be trusted with teddy bears anymore. I just don't know how valuable a beat up old bear can be!

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