Build-A-Bear

I recently listened to a great blogcast on helping children deal with deployments (upcoming Military Mondays post) and one of their suggestions was creating a stuffed animal at Build-A-Bear with a special message from the deployed parent. I fell in love with the idea.

I got online and started looking at the various options of animals knowing that each of my boys has their own interests. Without question Q-tip wanted the camo bear and initially Animal wanted a dragon but quickly changed his mind for a penguin. I called the two stores on the strip to check if they had the digital camo print uniforms but this was not to be so. No worries, it was the animal that was most important. I am still considering ordering the uniform for them online.

After arriving at Build-A-Bear Q-tip quickly grabbed a camo bear. It didn't take long for us to realize there were no penguins. It didn't occur to me to check for this...D'oh. Animal was frustrated. It took some convincing but he went with a dragon instead. Dragons are very strong but super cuddly too. Just in case you were wondering. I grabbed two voice boxes for J so that he could record a special message to each of the boys. And then we went through the stuffing process. The boys were only slightly impressed with the steps for placing in their small hearts: rub it on your head so he will be smart like you, rub it on your ear so he can hear, rub it on your nose so he can smell, rub it on your muscles so he will be strong, and whatever else. Like I said, not impressed. I thought it was cute. After all that we picked out two outfits and clothed their new animals. Voila, may I introduce you to Sammy (camo bear) and AF One (dragon). The boys picked those names themselves.



AF One says: Animal, Daddy loves you!
Sammy says: Q-tip, Daddy loves you and is proud of you for being strong while he's away!

I love it! I am quite certain that these little animals will be a great comfort in the coming months.