Great Bear

Do you remember when you were a kid and you had a stuffed animal that you projected a personality onto? Bean's been doing that for several months now with Great Bear. Great Bear has become a regular member of our family. Here he is:

I get to fix him snacks and tuck him in at night and all that. He's my quietest, most polite charge.

Here is what Bean wrote about Great Bear yesterday on his blog. I had a hard time keeping a straight face as I typed this for him. It's just so darling.

"Great Bear is uncommonly good-mannered. At times he has to fight the other stuffed animals. He is also very skilled with a gun. Don't mess with him. He keeps one eye open when he's asleep. So, in case somebody is trying to capture him. So. Beware. Sometimes I'm very good with him. Sometimes I bring him along just to keep the other kids laughing. Just to electrify me. It's very odd that whenever he defeats another bear he gets half of all their powers. He's a very good bear. He sometimes lets the other bears win. But not often. His birthday is Friday January 30th. We had celebrated his birthday by eating pie for breakfast. His cake's going to be delicious. It's going to be cupcakes. So, he is very nice in his own powers. You'd better look out. He sometimes falls in the mudholes."

You notice that Great Bear's birthday was yesterday. Great Bear has about four birthdays a year, or more. They pretty much happen when Bean decides we need a birthday around here. We had pumpkin pie for breakfast (sugar free!) but we never did get around to the cupcakes. Next birthday, I suppose.

Great Bear got some fabulous birthday presents yesterday. Many of our homeschool "Making Day" crafts revolve around making things for Great Bear. Last fall Bean started sewing a nine-patch to make into a quilt for Great Bear. It took him a long time, but he stitched the whole thing himself by hand.

I helped him back it with a square of fleece and tie it. Great Bear and Bean are both very pleased.

Yesterday for Making Day we made a house for Great Bear. Bean told me he wanted to do it several days ago (when he got ahold of the box my bookshelf came in!) and I told him it would be a great Making Day project. Yesterday morning when we got started it became apparent that he and I both had very different ideas about what a house for Great Bear would look like. Instead of trying to fight him about it, I decided to just let him go at it and do it however he wanted. I stayed nearby to help with cutting or taping as needed, but he designed and created this all by himself. I guess he decided that Great Bear needed a royal castle, because he made battlements and a drawbridge. It was a great learning experience.