Good Travels to Mr. Bear

Yesterday was a sad day in Mudville. We had to wish a special new friend Godspeed as he continues on his journey.

Nathan's teacher found a friend, Mr. Ted E. Bear, at the store. He's a very social bear and he doesn't really like to hibernate. He would rather meet new people and have adventures and fun with them. She thought she could help him out, so she bought him and is sending him on a journey. Mr. Bear gets to spend 2-3 days at each child's home. He has a journal that the children write in to tell of their activities with Ted. There's also a scrapbook where you can add some photos of the things you do together.

We got Ted on Thursday night. Friday, Nathan and Ted had great fun jumping on the trampoline. Saturday found Ted observing Nathan at his swimming lesson and then we took a family trip to the zoo. Mr. Bear has never seen so many different animals. He was a little shy about meeting the milk snake, but together, Nathan and Ted managed to pose for a quick photo in front of the snake. We all laughed so hard when Ted decided to climb on the octopus statue outside of the aquarium. It looked like the octopus was going to take him away. Ted thought the best part was when we measured him (and Nathan) by the sample penguins. We do this with the kids each year to see how they have grown. We sent those photos along so somebody else can help track Ted's growth.

Sunday found me heading to church to sing while Sean stayed home with the kids. Andrew wasn't feeling well so Nathan and Ted had a PJ day. They played on the computer, watched TV and had so much fun hanging out. Monday came and Nathan knew Ted had to go to the next house on Tuesday. Monday night they snuggled a lot and Ted was the primary stuffy to sleep with Nathan. Yesterday morning, Nathan put one last entry in the journal. A sad faced Nathan saying, "Bye" to Ted driving off in a car. Nathan got up extra early yesterday and spent time cuddling (and crying) with Ted before he had to leave. We talked about how we have all our photos to remember Mr. Bear and how other children want to play with him, too. He seemed to be ok by the time he went to school.

Nathan is ever hopeful (as are 21 other children in his room) that at the end of the year he will be the one to get Ted forever. At the end of the year, their teacher will draw one name to take Mr. Bear home to keep. She will keep his journal and scrapbook. What a wonderful memory for everyone in the class. Reading the journal written in 'kindergarten speak' is priceless.

Here are the scans of our scrapbook pages. Also a few other pictures with Mr. Bear. (Click on them to open in a MUCH larger format.)