The Story of a Boy and his Bear . . .

This is the story of a little boy who loves a bear . . . and his name is Preston, not Christopher Robin. The story actually starts long before anyone thought about Preston--When Burke and I were dating he sent me a teddy bear sprayed with some cologne a really sappy card that told me how much he missed and loved me (he lived an hour and a half away from me). I thought this was SO adorable and I loved having the "Burke" smell close to me every night.


Then we got married and as a joke I set the bear on our bed a few times. Burke thought that was pretty silly. I just couldn't get rid of it though. I am a bit of a sentimental sap I guess. Finally I put it in a box, not sure what its future would be. It survived 3 moves (which tells you that it was actually important to me) and one day when Preston was 6 or 7 months old I remembered the bear. I jumped up right then and went and dug it out of the storage closet.

It was love at first sight for both Preston and that Bear. I think that bear actually started smiling. Bear goes everywhere Preston goes. They play together and for a long while I joked he would never need a sibling because he was so content with the bear! Bear went everywhere with us. There was a period of time when a stuffed Elmo became his inseparable buddy, but bear was never entirely forgotten and always close by. According to Preston this bear has feelings, gets hungry, needs stories, needs to go potty, needs to wear clothes, needs to go to church (I do let bear come in the car to church or the store, but I draw the line at letting him take him in anywhere! Preston thinks this is wildly unfair, but you got to draw the line somewhere right?!) He also thinks it is "very rude" to put bear down from the table so we (the real eating members of the family) can all have a place to sit at dinner! Bear has been through numerous name changes, but will probably most consistently just be called "Bear". Below is a (small) sampling of the many many pictures I have of Preston and Bear. They are not in chronological order, but are all so sweet to me :) I love this wonderful boy!

This picture was taken because we found Preston like this after we had put him to bed-- he found his Monkey suit and put it on. Beloved Bear always close . . .

Clinging to bear to keep him safe from the camera!

one of many "tea parties"

asleep in his window sill-- Bear makes a terrific pillow!

Burke looking less than impressed with his genius idea of a Sunday afternoon activity -- he had to pull this kid (and Bear) around in this for a long time!

a few mornings ago (at about 6:30), Burke found Preston asleep in front of the heat vent on the stairs. Wearing a jacket. Notice who else got a jacket in the middle of the night?

He told us, "Bear and I got cold."