phase: teddy bear

When Elian was a baby, my Aunt Roberta made him this adorable fuzzy black teddy bear with movable arms, legs and head. He was immediately attached to his Ugli doll Target. And at such a young age, I didn't want to introduce too many stuffed animals in his bed, so we put the teddy bear on his bookcase where he sat and wisely watched over Elian's bedroom.

A few times I would take it down and show it to Elian and tell him how my Aunt MADE this teddy bear for him -- with her bare hands. He would politely comment that it was cute, but still he didn't seem to appreciate it much. In fact, he seemed a little nervous about it. So back on the shelf it went, relegated to room-watch bear.

But then last night something crazy happened. We were reading his "first words" Spanish book. We got to the word for teddy bear and Elian said, "I don't have a teddy bear, do I?" And I said, "Actually you do..." and I grabbed the Aunt Roberta teddy bear off the shelf and once again explained how she made it for him, how it has black fuzzy fur and brown eyes just like Norman... He looked and touched it with great interest as if for the first time. It was as if something in the teddy-bear region of his brain just charged up.

For the rest of our books, he clung to the teddy bear and bombarded me with questions:
How'd she make it?
What is its name?
How many teddy bears did you have when you were little, Mama?
How old are most kids when they like teddy bears?
Why are they called Teddy Bears?

And probably the best one:
Why didn't I like this teddy bear until today?

He told me he was going to sleep with it, along with two other teddy bears he has. I was skeptical. Normally, if he goes to bed with any animal besides Target, he usually calls downstairs and asks us to come and take it away. But last night he didn't. He slept the whole night with the big, black, fuzzy teddy bear. Then this morning, when he crawled into our bed he was carrying Teddy instead of Target. I imagine Target was feeling exactly how Woody felt when Andy got Buzz Lightyear.

We'll see where this goes. I won't be at all surprised if he changes his mind and the teddy bear goes back on the shelf. But even if this is a very short teddy-bear phase, it was amusing while it lasted.