Marlowe: A Teddy Bear

January 28th, 2012

2012-01-28T08:47:00.000-06:00

Last weekend, my mom went with her parents and Caleb to the Milwaukee Public Museum to see the Cleopatra exhibit.

Unfortunately, they didn’t allow photography inside the exhibit, so we can’t show you any of the artifacts! Mom and Caleb said it was really cool. They had huge statues of Ptolemaic kings, jewelry from that time period, and a piece of papyrus that they said that Cleopatra signed herself with ‘make it happen.’
Mom did take pictures of the rest of the museum! She didn’t use any flash and no one seemed to care! There weren’t any signs that said you couldn’t, so we have plenty if pictures to share. We thought we would divide the pictures up into a few posts so this doesn’t get too long!

This is a picture of the Hebior mammoth. It was found in a nearby town named Kenosha. The display says that it was a middle aged adult mammoth. It has butchering marks on the hind legs, and it is some of the first evidence of humans in Wisconsin.

Mom liked his foot—look at those thick bones! It carried him for his whole life 13,500 plus years ago!
We really don’t have much of a plan to these photos, so you’ll have to all bear with us!
Later,

January 17th, 2012

2012-01-17T08:30:00.000-06:00

Time for another book review. Mom and I really liked sharing her children’s book collection, and I like picking out my favorites! We decided that we would go on with the book reviews! (She says that we’re probably not going to go outside for pictures any time soon! It’s cold here in Wisconsin!)

Today we are going to share our favorite Sandra Boynton book. It is called Hippos Go Berserk!

Foster read it to us today. It is a counting book. But it RHYMES! It is very bouncy and it has some grown up words in it! (Safe words, but big words!)

And it has Mom’s favorite Sandra Boynton characters--- hippos!

I hope you all are having a great day!

January 15th, 2012

2012-01-15T21:25:00.000-06:00

My mom says that I have to let her use my blog to talk about Adelaide and the other American Girl dolls today. She says that they sent a package to a friend that they made over at LiveJournal in a group called AG_Over_18.

It was an event called Secret Snarkster. Another person on the group gathered emails and such and exchanged them among the group. We haven’t gotten ours yet, but Mom thinks that the person we’re sending ours to is possibly the person who we get it from. Maybe she’s waiting to make sure that we send something, since this is our first time at it.

When Mom got the email that said who we were going to get to exchange presents with, they were pretty excited. Mom and the girls looked through the letter and decided what they were going to get for who. The dolls had requested some items that we thought we could get them.

But Mom had another idea. She thought that the girls could make their new friends presents! They chose making jewelry! Mom showed them how to make bracelets!

They used the clip to make sure that the beads didn’t fall off.

Aren’t the beads little?

Then they made cards to put the jewelry on. Mom says that we will show off the package once they box it up and send it on it’s way. I think it sounded like a lot of fun!

January 11th, 2012

2012-01-11T21:37:00.001-06:00

A few days ago, Mom decided that we ought to go out shopping with her.

Adelaide, Caleb, and Carabella came with, along with our new Monster High friend, Kaida. (She is a dragon that came out of the create-a-monster kit. She came with because she’s going to get painted!)

Adelaide was a little worried—it was the first time that she went shopping. That is the reason that Carabella came with, because she knew how scary it was to go out for your first time! She wanted to provide a little support for Adelaide.

Things did go well. On the way home, Mom decided to do something that even I had never done—go the car washed! We went through an automatic car wash!

It was really cool!

Lots of soap and water!

I didn’t get anything, but Adelaide got some pretty hair clips!

It was a lot of fun! Some of my friends are travel companions and get to go places all the time. But have any of the rest of you gotten to go anywhere interesting lately?

January 4th, 2011

2012-01-04T18:37:00.001-06:00

My mom got one new plushie friend for Christmas.

His name is Dickens and he is a TY Beanie Baby. He is a very small fellow. He has green little front paws and a soft red nose. He is very festive. He says that he is glad that Mom doesn’t put Christmas plushies away, and that he will spend the entire year hanging out with my friends and I. Did anyone else get any new friends for Christmas?

Later,

January 1st, 2012

2012-01-01T18:32:00.001-06:00

Hurrah! A new year! These things mean much more to humans then they do to teddy bears, but it makes Mom happy if we celebrate. (It’s a much more low key celebration—Mom’s not much of a partying type!)

Happy New Year from the American Girls!

And from the domos!

And from the Liv family!

From some of the Monster High family!

And, of course, from some of my plushie friends and I. We all hope you have a great new year!

December 28th, 2011

2011-12-28T09:15:00.000-06:00

I hope you all had a great holiday! Mine was pretty sweet!

Apparently, Princess was feeling a little bit left out of the photography business today when we took pictures of my Christmas presents. She pushed her way into the photo and wouldn’t leave. Mom says that she’s lucky she’s so cute!

I got some clothes, a domo calendar, and a little recycled plastic glider guy.

And a photo with Princess, of course!

December 27th, 2011

2011-12-27T09:30:00.000-06:00

As part of my next book review, I thought I would show you something very interesting that my mom and I found. It is a foundation called We Give Books. For every e-book that you read on their website, they give a copy of it to one of three pro-literacy foundations. (Mom is very pro-literacy!)

You don’t have to be a bookseller or blogger to look at the books. Mom and I just signed up for an account and started reading.

One of the books that we read was called Good Luck Bear by Greg Foley. It is about a little bear who wants to find a four leaf clover for good luck.

It’s got cute illustrations! As you can see, it looks much like a regular picture book! You page through the entire book, and then at the end, a button appears that allows you to ‘give’ a book!

I imagine that Mom and I are going to have a lot of fun with this website! There are almost 160 picture books that you can browse through—and some of them are nonfiction books about all sorts of nature things too!

I hope you all enjoy this website find! Have a great day!

December 25th, 2011

2011-12-25T09:00:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas, everyone! Mom and I wanted to drop in and wish everyone a great day. (Technically, we’re writing this a few days ahead of time, since we don’t know what we’re going to be doing on Christmas day proper.) In the next few days, I will write a blog entry about what I got for Christmas. Since Christmas is the day that I came to live with Mom—way back in 2005, we celebrate it as my birthday too!

I hope you all are having a great day, surrounded by your friends and family. My mom and I are always grateful for each and every one of you who come to my blog and read. We both find it so much fun to connect with other plushies and their owners all over the world! Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukah!

December 24th, 2011

2011-12-24T07:10:00.000-06:00

Unintentionally, Mom and I have this figured out. One last Christmas card post, and one last day before Christmas!

We received a surprise package a few days ago! It was from Buttons!

It was a really great card, a picture, and a little soldier! I love the picture! Mom says that it will be a great idea for next year!

My mom says that she got me something for Christmas, so I shall post a picture of it after we open presents tonight. (My mom’s family opens presents on Christmas Eve!)

Merry Christmas Eve, everyone!!

December 23rd, 2011

2011-12-23T07:05:00.000-06:00

A couple of weeks ago, my mom and I won a contest on Sullivan’s blog. It arrived a few days ago, and I am really honored!

You guys should see the candy bar! It probably weighs almost as much as I do! And the postcards are really cool as well! I’m hesitant to send out the postcards because they’re so pretty!

Thanks a million, Sullivan! The package really made my day!

December 22nd, 2011

2011-12-22T19:36:00.000-06:00

Today’s postcard comes from Barney and his Mom Sarah from BearPlace.

It is handmade too! I’m such a lucky bear to have such great friends who make things for me!

December 21st, 2011

2011-12-21T07:29:00.000-06:00

Today’s card comes from Fed Bear and Berrie Penguin from BearPlace!

It even has some Chinese or Japanese characters on the card! Very grand!

More to come!

December 20th, 2011

2011-12-20T07:20:00.000-06:00

Today’s card is from Bob T. Bear and his mom, Helena!

I love your print! We sing the song ‘We Three Kings’ every time we see it, but instead of kings we say bears! My friends and I think it’s very funny!

This is the version that Mom remembers from her childhood. We are not sure if they every played the Claymation Christmas special in Europe! But since almost everything is on YouTube, we can share!

Claymation Christmas- We Three Kings

More tomorrow!

December 19th, 2011

2011-12-19T19:11:00.001-06:00

My mom and I took some photos of the mail that we’ve gotten recently! We’ve decided to post them one at a time so we have a flurry of posts before Christmas! We did finish the Christmas cards today, so I hope they all make it to their destinations in time.

This is the card that my friends, Jerry and Ben and their dad sent me. Isn’t it pretty! Thanks a lot guys!

We have more mail to come! Hurrah!

December 17th, 2011

2011-12-17T19:06:00.001-06:00

Sorry guys—Mom has been very tired lately, and we let the pre-written blog posts go through. We didn’t write any new ones lately. With the Christmas crazies at the place she works, she hasn’t really been in the mood to write anything. Her next day off is Monday after six straight days, so I’m not sure if we’re going to write anything.

We started on the Christmas cards that we are going to send to all of my friends. She’s decided to bring them to work with her tomorrow and maybe some more will get done. At least they can be signed and our home address written on them. If we get them all addressed by Monday, they should get to most of my international friends by Christmas. I’m sorry if everyone doesn’t get them in time! Technically, they’re ‘holiday’ cards, so I guess as long as they get there by New Years, they’re still on time!

Talk to you all later!

December 3rd, 2011

2011-12-03T11:01:00.000-06:00

I’m trying to convince Mom to allow me to review the books she reads, but she says that the children’s books are much more interesting! (She’s currently reading this book on her nook, by the way.)

Today, Milton picked out the book for us to read. It is called Philadelphia Chickens: A Too-Illogical Zoological Musical Revue, and it is by the same lady who wrote Perfect Piggies, Sandra Boynton. One of Mrs. Boynton’s many hobbies is music. Along with her husband and a few various minor celebrities, they have made a CD of some songs. This book gives you the sheet music and lyrics along with the CD.

Milton only reads us the lyrics though. He says that he does not sing. Caleb will try to sing, but we usually don’t encourage that! (He’s just—well, a little loud for a bear his size!)

It’s got her wonderful illustrations-- dogs, and strutting chickens and such!

I hope you are having a great day!

November 27th, 2011

2011-11-27T07:15:00.000-06:00

Mom and I are really enjoying picking out books from our collection to show you. Mom loves children's books, and has quite the collection.

This time, Foster is here to help me show you Just Plain Fancy, by a lady named Patricia Polacco. She has written lots of books, but this is Mom's favorite.

This book is about a little Amish girl named Naomi who is in charge of her family's chickens. One day, along with her little sister, Ruth, they gather the eggs and come upon a fancy looking egg.

They put it under a chicken, and it hatches! We won't say anything more, since we don't want to ruin the surprise. Mom says that this is a simple way to show the Amish way of life to children.

I hope you will enjoy this book as much as we do!

November 26th, 2011

2011-11-26T20:39:00.001-06:00

It’s been quite some time since I’ve introduced a new member of our plushie family. Mom bought him at work.

His name is Nickleby. He was part of Mom’s plan to cheer herself up after Black Friday at work. (Her Black Friday wasn’t as crazy as the ones mentioned by far!)

Mom thinks that he is a charmer. She says that he’s not as a big of a charmer as I am, and I’m glad for that!

There are about six weeks left to the Christmas crazies at work. Mom and I have decided that we will continue letting the book review blogs post, but we’re both looking forward to returning to blogging regularly! Mom says she misses taking pretty pictures of my friends and I!

There is one thing that Mom is going to find the time and energy to do—Christmas cards! Does anyone new want a Christmas card? I’ve still got the snail mail addresses of the people who we sent one to last year, but we are always looking to send them to new people!! You can email me your address via the link on my profile page or on Twitter! I love sending mail!

Hope you are all having a great day!

November 23rd, 2011

2011-11-23T11:10:00.000-06:00

We’re doing pretty good about producing blog posts early. Mom says that this time last year we didn’t have any posts at all. Now we have some posts with some only moderately decent pictures! Maybe next year at this time we’ll have some posts with lovely pictures!

This blog post’s book is called You Are My I Love You, by a lady named Mary Ann Cusimano Love. It is a very sweet book about how much a parent loves their child. I love the fact that the characters are teddy bears!

Today, Pine, my dog, wanted to come and help me read the book. He is always a lot of help—even if sometimes he gets in the way a bit!

The book has a sweet rhyming rhythm in it. I think it would make a good lullaby.

“I am your push; you are my swing.

I am your audience; you are my clown.

I am your London Bridge; you are my falling down.”

He wanted to get right in there! He was helping me hold the book down in this picture.

Mom says that this book would make a great baby shower present, or for a beloved child. We bought our copy at Goodwill just because Mom liked it so much. (She saw it at work.)

And finally, because I can—a Princess picture. She was also helping Mom take the pictures, but she is too big to sit on my lap!

Talk to you all later! I hope you are having a great day!!

Later,

November 20th, 2011

2011-11-20T08:50:00.000-06:00

Time for another book review! This time it is a children’s picture book called A Mother for Choco, by a lady named Keiko Kasza.

It is about a lonely little parrot named Choco. He is a yellow parrot who does not seem to have a mom. He goes to each of the animals that he thinks looks like him in some way and asks them if they are his mother. They all say no!

I don’t want to ruin the ending for you! Mom says that the book is sort of about adoption and accepting families of all shapes and sizes. We both like this book and think it is very cute and sweet. I think we like it so much because our family around here is from all sorts of different places, species, and makers. Everyone from the domos, to plushies, to the Monster High dolls!

November 14th, 2011

2011-11-14T10:21:00.001-06:00

The snow is all gone now. It was 50 degrees F for a bit this week and it went all away. Mom says that is only a matter of time before it snows again!

This is my mom’s 11/11/11 picture. There is still a little snow on the roof of the garage, but it’s gone now.

All of the leaves on the trees are gone as well. I do like fall foliage and I wish it could have lasted longer! Mom says that there is always next year! What does it look like around your home?

November 9th, 2011

2011-11-09T21:34:00.001-06:00

Very short post because I ought to be going to bed!

SNOW!! I love snow! Mom doesn’t like it too much now that she has to drive, but isn’t it pretty!

More later!

November 7th, 2011

2011-11-07T08:28:00.001-06:00

Our next book that we are going to review is one of Mom’s favorite books from when she was a little girl. It is called the Phantom Tollbooth and it is by a man named Norman Juster. Technically, the copy that we are showing you is brand new. It is the 50th anniversary of the original publication. It is annotated! This means that someone detailed all the little references hidden in the text. It is very fascinating to Mom, but not so much to us bears! We still let her point them out, because it makes her happy!

The Phantom Tollbooth is about a boy named Milo. He does not know what to do with his time—and he thinks most things are pretty boring.

He comes home from another boring day at school to a box waiting for him. Inside are a note, a map, and directions to assemble a tollbooth—and a little car to drive. It sends him onto a grand adventure where he meets all sorts of amusing characters. (Milton had to help me hold the book up—it’s a big book and very heavy!)

It is full of great words, literary connections, and lessons to learn. It is probably a book for eight to ten year olds. The grammar and choice of words makes it a great book for adults as well! Mom still has her original copy from when she was a little girl and cherishes it to this day! I hope you will go to your local library and give it a try!

Later,

October 28th, 2011

2011-10-28T11:55:00.000-05:00

My mom’s work is starting to get crazy busy, so we are trying to think of ideas to make posts that we can plan ahead. We use a program called Windows Live Writer to post on the blog. It has the ability to post entries on schedule. Mom says that it actually has something to do with Blogger and the way that it makes them appear on schedule. All I know is that this Christmas season, Mom and I are going to do our hardest not to disappear into the black lagoon of Christmas crazies!

We thought that books would be interesting and something that is not dependent on Mom taking one of us outside to take pictures. Our friend Sullivan McPig and his friend the Voodoo Bride have a reading blog called Pearls Cast Before a McPig. Mom says that we don’t need another blog, so I will post our reviews here. We’re going to start out with children’s books, because Mom has plenty of those!

Our first book is in honor of Sullivan. It is by a lady named Sandra Boynton. It is called Perfect Piggies.

Sandra Boynton is a very funny writer. She writes for mostly the under three year old set, but they’re also funny for the adults reading them. For her more recent books, she has recorded a song along with the book. You have to visit a special website to download it.

It is about how practically perfect pigs are! Mom and I tend to agree! We’re also very fond of it because it has rhythm and rhymes.

I hope you like my book review—I’m afraid I don’t want go to into too much detail—since it’s such a short book to begin with. Maybe as time goes on, Mom will review the books she reads! (They’re much longer!)

October 25th, 2011

2011-10-25T10:00:00.000-05:00

My mom and I wanted to share with you a cool website we found. It’s called PostCrossing. It is sort of an international postcard exchange. We have currently sent out three postcards, one to Illinois, another to Utah, and one to Poland. We have only received one.

It is one from the Where’s Waldo children’s books. It was also from Utah. When Mom made the account, she clicked a box that said that we wouldn’t mind sending postcards to the same countries more than once. She thought that it meant that we would receive them from more distant places! I told her that Utah is pretty far for me!

It is getting colder and colder. Soon there will be snow on the ground! Mom says that she hopes that it will wait a while though! Our trees are turning pretty colors though! I like fall. I like all the pretty colors and the cooler temperatures. Mom says that it’s probably a part of being a bear—even though I don’t hibernate!

Hope you are having a great day!!

October 21st, 2011

2011-10-21T22:09:00.001-05:00

Mom’s domo obsession has taken over a small place on our shelves. I guess I’m lucky that she’s only interested in the brightly colored ones.

We have more than this now. I admit I think they’re kind of cute, but they’re awfully loud! For a bear who enjoys quiet times, it’s hard to ignore these little guys and their talking. They’re very friendly creatures—but they never stop talking!

Mom took all the domos she had outside a few days ago to take photos. Since this is supposed to be a blog about a bear, she says that we won’t post them all here. (They’re all at our Flickr account if you would like to see them.) But she did take Milton and I outside. It’s been a while since Milton has been on my blog. He’s one of my best friends!

It was a really nice day. Maybe Mom will take us outside tomorrow. It’s supposed to be nice—it’s been windy and cold here lately. It’s like we skipped fall and went straight to a pre-winter season!
Later!

October 2nd, 2011

2011-10-02T20:52:00.001-05:00

Mom has been kind of busy with regular life things, so we haven’t updated lately. We felt like we ought to take time to update today because one of our online friends, Michael the Monkey, gave me an award!

I first thought that I’m really not a toy tourist! Toy tourists travel around the world and see different things! All I’ve done is travel around my home area! But then I really read Michael’s definition—- ‘a toy who travels around, takes pictures, and shares their adventures.’ It dawned on me that Wisconsin is as much as an adventure for people who live around the world as the Netherlands or Russia is to me!

So I’m honored to accept the award! I’ve put it in my blog column to share with everyone! You’re supposed to pass it on to new people, so I am going to pass it on to some friends that Michael has not awarded it to.

Sullivan McPig

Bob the Bear and his sister, Dilly

Beanie Mouse

Tat and Tat 2

Eldritch the Dragon

I’m not sure how to put the script that would allow you to embed it into your own blog like Michael did. I guess you will have to go back to his post and get it from there!

I hope you are all having a great day!

September 24th, 2011

2011-09-24T23:42:00.001-05:00

I know this is supposed to be a blog about me, but Mom bought Adelaide a new outfit yesterday and wants to share the pictures. Since she’s my mom and my typist, I figure I should let her. She says that maybe I can have my own photo-shoot tomorrow, which I am looking forward to!

She bought the outfit at Toys R Us. It’s from a doll named Journey Girls. It really doesn’t fit very well, but it is pretty and Mom can find her a skirt to make it work better.

Adelaide apparently didn’t want to go outside for her photo-shoot—she didn’t say anything to Mom, but fell out of a tree that she was placed in, and fell over when Mom put her on the ground. Luckily, it didn’t seem to hurt her at all! Mom said that she ought to have said something and she would’ve taken someone else outside! Sometimes, girls are so difficult to understand!

Mom also took some nature pictures. We have an apple orchard in our front yard. No one sprays them for the bugs and such, so they look a bit beat up after a summer outside.

Mom says that is what real apples look like. They’re still good eating!

Hope you all are having a good day. More bear pictures soon!

September 22nd, 2011

2011-09-22T11:57:00.001-05:00

It turns out that Bob the Bear was right—Caleb was on a secret mission. It turns out that while he was in Mom’s purse at work, he found out that some special guests were coming to live at our house. He needed to scoot away to learn their language before they moved in.

Meet the Domos! Right now, only Caleb can understand them. They tell him that it will be a little while before they can talk to the rest of us. Mom found out about the domos from this lady on Flickr. She’s always wanted one, and she discovered that her store now carries them!

I listened to them talk for a while to Caleb. He’s pretty happy that they talk to him. He considers himself the ambassador to life around here for the domos! (He’s always been a bit dramatic!)

Adelaide came to see what was happening. I was kind of glad that she did, because she’s got fingers and is able to pick up fast, darting things, much like domos. My paws don’t move quite that fast!

She caught one of the domos! She asked the strawberry domo what it’s name was and it turned out to be Atsuko. Well, we think that’s what her name is—we still don’t quite understand what they’re saying, and Caleb is miffed that Adelaide came in and took control of the domos. (Mom and I don’t mind!)

We’ll keep you all updated on our new invasion of domos! I’m sure that my Mom will invite more of them home!

September 13th, 2011

2011-09-14T06:00:00.000-05:00

Today, Mom took Milton and I to recover Caleb from her friend’s house. About a week ago, Mom forgot Caleb in a bag in her friend’s car! (It was a mistake, so I understood.)

After the car ride, Mom, Caleb, and I went outside for a while. In the same bag that Caleb spent the week in was our new friend, Whittle.

He is a TY Beanie Buddy bear. Mom saved him from a thrift store. This time, she really saved him! He was in the free bin! Who knows what happens after the free bin!! That sounds so scary!

It was a very nice day. It was nice and cool—which is good for teddy bears with fur coats. It was also very sunny, which I like. Soon the leaves will start falling off the trees and maybe Mom will take us outside for another photo-shoot like last year! Who knows!

September 7th, 2011

2011-09-07T23:01:00.001-05:00

My mom has been taking me traveling lately! It’s just to work, but I get to go outside!

This is my traveling bag. Mom usually lets me pick out one of my friends to come with. The two of us fit in there nicely. We have a blanket to cover up. She usually only takes us when it is nice outside, since we have to spend the whole day in the car. Sometimes, she comes outside and spends her break with us! It’s pretty fun though either way. We get to play around in the car and people watch!

Do your people take you all anywhere? Mom has taken Caleb on all her vacations. He’s been to Kansas, Minnesota, and all over Wisconsin! I see some of your blog entries with vacations and I’m jealous! I hope now that Mom drives herself (and therefore the car she takes someplace might be hers) I will get to go with next time!

I hope you all are having a great day!

August 4th, 2011

2011-08-04T21:16:00.001-05:00

My mom has been spending her time online doing other things then helping me update my blog. She says that some of humans who read my blog will understand the appeal, although I’m not quite sure.

A long time ago—well, at least a few years ago, Mom’s grandma was moved into an assisted living place. Her mom and dad found a packet of photocopied bible pages—of her dad’s family. All the way to her great-grandparents. She went to a website called MyHeritage.com and started entering the information. Soon, through her grandfather’s mother, she got literally thousands of relatives that lived in Europe—mostly the Netherlands. Through a little work using US Census records and googling, she’s expanded her family on all sides. (It turns out that she’s distantly related to a bunch of Quakers! And that her Mom’s side is mostly English!)

So she’s been using a program that came with the website and been adding people ever since. I don’t know if you can see the landing page, but here is the fruits of my mom’s online time. It seems to just sap up all sorts of time. She says that it will change once the weather’s not so hot and humid outside. (She admits she’s a bit of a wuss when it comes to the humidity!)

I think that she ought to do my genealogy, but she says that she doesn’t know where in China I came from. I know I came from a gardening store nearby, but she says that’s not where I was born. Maybe she can google that!

On an unrelated note, a few days ago, my mom used her nook-color to look up her sister’s name. Her book (which we knew about) is finally available as an ebook!

It’s called Medea in the Waters. Mom says that it is not a book for small bears or children. (It’s a link to amazon.com, since the place she bought it doesn’t do international stuff.) It’s supposed to be available as a paper book soon, but Mom bought it for herself anyways.

Talk to you all later!

July 17th, 2011

2011-07-14T10:52:00.000-05:00

I have been helping my mom check her social networking profiles today. She showed me Beanie Mouse’s profile, Tat and Tat 2’s profile, and Miranda Ixie’s profile. I was wondering if you all thought that I should get a Facebook profile. I don’t really spend a lot of time online doing things for me—it’s usually watching Mom do her online thing! But I obviously would have plenty of friends to talk to—maybe I’d have more friends then Mom does! (That’s already happened on my twitter page!)

I couldn’t figure out a picture to put on here—so Mom and I decided that a bulldog picture is always apropos no matter what I write about!

July 11th, 2011

2011-07-11T10:34:00.000-05:00

One of Mom’s favorite things—besides reading, is fishing. She doesn’t get to go a lot. It’s possible to go fishing by yourself, but it’s not the same! So she has to wait till one of her friends have extra time before she can go. Caleb was in her backpack the entire time (he was the wallet protector), so even these photos have something to do with me and my friends! (Not that you guys seem to mind my Wisconsin related posts!)

We live near the Fox River. It was the dumping ground for papermaking plants a long time ago, so the fish aren’t safe to eat. It doesn’t bother Mom and her friends because they don’t want to kill the fish!

They mostly fish off parks and the like. This is Peabody Park. The white stuff on the ground is cottonwood seeds. Cottonwood trees are rather hardy and enjoy wet soil, so they like to live near rivers.

This was one of the larger fish Mom and her friend caught. It was a rock bass.

Mom’s favorite part by far was the mallard duck families! There were a couple of them. This mom duck had probably eight or nine babies!

This mom duck had fewer babies, but they were older. They also got a lot closer!

Until next time!

July 8th, 2011

2011-07-08T10:10:00.000-05:00

Another exciting thing that happened around here was that Mom finally got her Molly doll. She came to our house from ebay—in rather poor shape. Meet Molly—in a new outfit!

Her bangs are longer—and it turns out that so was her braids.

But now we have THREE American Girl dolls living with us! Mom assures me that there will probably never be as many teddies though!

This photo is from before Molly came—Caleb is still around! He still travels around with Mom in her purse!

Has anyone seen Cars 2 yet? Mom is waiting for someone to see it with, but I want to know now!

Later!

July 4th, 2011

2011-07-04T10:05:00.000-05:00

Happy 4th of July everyone! For my American friends, it’s Happy Independence Day—and for everyone else—have a happy 4th anyways!

I thought I would share some of my mom’s pictures of the zoo animals that live down the road from us. My mom likes the farm animals best. Someday, I am going to be a little farming bear!

My mom loves chickens! This one has penciled feathers. It’s when the edges are a different color. A few different breeds of chicken can have these feathers, so Mom doesn’t know which kind of chicken she is.

This is the white Siberian tiger that lives there. There is also a orange one, and a lion and lioness. Sometimes, you can hear them roar for supper or lunch!

This is a miniature Zebu cow. Mom overheard the lady who was watching the petting zoo call her Zara. She wanted to be Mom’s friend.

This is a Khaki Campbell duck. It’s a girl duck because there isn’t any curly feathers at the end of her tail. Mom loves ducks the most. She would have liked to pet one of the ducks, but she knows that they don’t care for it. It was better to take pictures instead.

Another thing that Mom likes a lot is koi. They’re those fancy goldfish that can live outside. Unfortunately, it looked like the zoo got rid of their koi. They did still have the pond and the water lilies though. They were very pretty!

We could share hundreds of pictures, so I better end now!

July 2nd, 2011

2011-07-02T16:34:00.001-05:00

So, first Mom and I want to apologize for not being online. It’s sort of a combination of cranky Mom, and stupid computer!

One of the things that happened when I was gone is that Mom finally brought home an American Girl doll. My mom grew up in the 1980s and 1990s, when they first came out. One of the first dolls, Samantha, had the same first name as her little sister. Being a kid, she thought that sooner or later they would come out with one with her name! That never happened, but she became attached to the Molly doll. Her parents never had the money to send for one, so now that she is an adult, she did!

The first girl that she saved from ebay turned out to be a little bit off from her memories of the AG dolls. But we kept her of course, but changed her name. This is Moira!

Some little girl cut her bangs. Mom calls it her appointment with a past hairstylist!

Now Adelaide has a new friend! Mom did end up inviting another AG girl home, but we’ll talk about that next time.

I’ve been very patient with Mom and her AG dolls! It’s important to be patient with Moms!

Talk to you later! We’re going to make a couple of posts and set them up to appear over the next few days!

June 30th, 2011

2011-06-30T20:40:00.001-05:00

My mom received a new computer for her birthday—well, she received help buying a new computer for her birthday. She says that this will allow us to post more. Fred, our old computer, is old and cranky—and the USB ports are naughty. So the mouse doesn’t work and the webpages freeze—along with a half dozen other problems. Right now, Mom and I are still playing around with it, downloading programs and setting things up. Tomorrow and Saturday she says we will post!

April 21st, 2011

2011-04-21T20:59:00.001-05:00

My mom buys me presents sometimes. Sometimes, they’re clothes, which isn’t very fun. Sometimes they’re toys, which is a lot more fun. I have my own train, and a toy digger. A few days ago, she got me a brand new toy!

I have my very own Lightning McQueen! My favorite movie is Cars! There’s a new movie coming out too—Mom and I aren’t too sure about it, but we figure we ought to give it a try! She was looking for a Sally too, but all the ones the store had were Lightning McQueen.

Isn’t he great?! He’s just my size. You see his eyes? They move back and forth when you look at him from different directions.

I think he’s my favorite toy right now. (Caleb, my bear, really isn’t a toy, obviously—he’s my friend!) Does anyone else have a favorite toy?

April 9th, 2011

2011-04-09T21:54:00.002-05:00

I thought that my mom and I would have posted quickly after the last one, but it didn’t seem to happen. Sigh.
The new friend I wanted to tell you about is Fyodor. I thought I would mention him here in case any of you know what kind of bear he is. His tag says that he is a Ganz Heritage collection bear, but we haven’t been able to find out what his tag name is or anything like that. We even scoured ebay for the name and it didn’t come up.
A few days after that, Mom brought home a new Build-a-Bear friend. Her name is Wheat, and she is Shirley’s cousin.

Mom named her Wheat because one of our friends on Flickr, Neoguest, had brought home a sheep called Clover! We already have a friend named Clover here (she’s a Westie), so she came up with Wheat!
Mom and I are sorry that we haven’t been commenting on people’s posts lately. Fred, our computer, is getting old. When we upgraded to Firefox 4, we started to see that he was working very slowly when we wanted to go on the internet. So far Mom’s figured out one thing that seems to speed things up a little bit. She started telling me about memory and CPU and all sorts of things—and it was very confusing. She said that I can just think about what to have her type up on our blog posts and leave the computer worrying to her.
And Mom’s had a cold for the past couple days—and along with work things, she’s been a rather unhappy camper. Well, she’s been a rather cranky camper really. Fred-the-computer should be glad that she’s not prone to fits of temper! (That’s what Mom says!)
I hope my mom feels better soon so she can take us outside! It’s the beginning of spring here in Wisconsin and there are plenty of brand new growing things to see! (That’s some moss!)
Talk to you all later!

March 28th, 2011

2011-03-28T08:32:00.000-05:00

More pictures from the Building for Kids. Like I said yesterday, it is more of a play area then a museum. There are plenty of things that kids can do with their imagination though. Mom says that with all the video games and such, kids need a place to use their imaginations!

Mom doesn’t like posting pictures here that have other people in it. There were A LOT of people there. It seemed like hundreds!

This little girl was enjoying spinning the globe. (They’re all facing the other way, therefore exempt from Mom’s rule.)

We thought we would post this picture for Dilly. It looks like one of her cousins was immortalized in papier-mâché!

I have a new plushie friend and mail blog post thought up for next, but then I am going to show you one more place that Mom visited! I hope you all don’t mind my blog trip around where I live.

March 27th, 2011

2011-03-27T20:17:00.001-05:00

We read all your blogs about the areas that you live in. My mom and I live in Wisconsin. We actually live in a little town near the city of Appleton. We thought we would share pictures of our nearest city like you all share pictures. Yesterday, Mom and Caleb went to downtown Appleton to see a children’s museum called the Building for Kids.

This is the corner that the museum was on. Mom was with some other people, so she didn’t want to cross the road to take a picture of the building itself.

Downtown Appleton is sort of recovering. There are some businesses, but there are also a lot of empty buildings. That large building is mostly empty.

The Building for Kids is supposed to be an educational children’s museum. It is mostly a gigantic play area, scattered with a few learning things. Mom thinks that if your visit was more structured, a kid might learn more! The two little girls we were with enjoyed themselves a lot, so that is the most important part!

Mom had seen commercials on television for their Japanese exhibit. It turned out mostly to be a room with a few manga-inspired things. It was still kind of cool—Mom was impressed that she recognized these characters! They’re from a movie called My Neighbor Totoro!

This is the cat bus! We’re not so sure what it is from, but it’s very funny looking. (Reading the Wikipedia article on My Neighbor Totoro explained that it comes from that movie too!)

My mom really enjoys zoos and animals. She was glad to see that they had some birds. They were all little finches and canaries.

They also had a few pet rats. They were female dumbo rats. This one was named Oreo. Some little child had put finger-paint all over the glass of the cage they were in, so there wasn’t too many places to get pictures.

Then they had a rainbow bearded lizard. He or she was pretty interested in sunning herself on the rock. I think that would be a pretty sweet life if I were a lizard!

Next time, I’ll show you some pictures of what else was inside the Building for Kids.

March 22nd, 2011

2011-03-22T22:05:00.001-05:00

Things around here have been pretty calm for me, but exciting for my mom. My mom is a real book nerd—and one of her favorite things in the entire world is to meet her favorite authors! (You might remember Neil Gaiman and the House on the Rock.) Well, last week, Mom and one of her friends from work went to Minneapolis, Minnesota to see Jasper Fforde, the author of one of her favorite contemporary fiction works, the Eyre Affair.

This is Mr. Fforde. Mom says he was very funny. Caleb, who traveled with her in her purse, said that he didn’t get a lot of the jokes. Mom said that he probably would have to read the books to understand.

This is my mom with Mr. Fforde. She was kind of nervous and mostly giddy.

This is my mom’s signed copy of his newest novel, One of Our Thursdays is Missing. This made my mom a very happy person indeed!

She has the next few days off from work, so as long as the weather improves, I’m hoping to talk her into another trip outside. Right now Wisconsin is experiencing some very un-spring-like weather. I hope that will change soon. Hope you all are having a good day!

February 22nd 2011

2011-02-22T09:26:00.001-06:00

It worked! I got to go outside! Well, I got to sit on the porch and watch the birds! Caleb and my new friend, Adelaide, got to come with.

Adelaide is an American Girl Addy doll that Mom found at Goodwill. She is extra special because she has two different colored eyes!

Caleb wants me to tell you all about his new shirt. It’s a Hawaiian shirt, and not really winter gear. He posed for this picture before he went back under the blanket with Adelaide.

He can be a very funny bear sometimes—He’s especially proud of his Boyds Bears pin. Some of his clothes come from Boyds and he thinks that it’s a designer label! Mom tries to explain to him that the clothes come from Goodwill, but he doesn’t want to listen!

I posed for a picture for Mom. It was still rather cold, so we went back inside and had a good nap on the couch!

Just because—another Wisconsin winter picture. This is one of our silver maple trees!

Talk to you all later! I hope you’re having a great day!

February 12th, 2011

2011-02-12T20:50:00.001-06:00

Mom posted this picture on my Flickr account, but I figure I should post it here. You people are the people that my mom would listen to! I want to go OUTSIDE. It’s been ages! (Mom says she has photographic proof that it hasn’t been ages, but I don’t care!) I would put my foot down on this subject, but it doesn’t make too much of an impact when you’re wearing slippers! Mom says that it is still going to probably be too wet to go outside tomorrow. (It’s supposed to be 36* F tomorrow—warm enough so Mom can’t use that as an excuse!)

Sigh. I must be a good little bear! Mom says that we don’t go outside because she’s afraid I’ll get dirty—which would bring on one of the most dreaded things in a plush bear’s life—a bath—so she’s really only thinking of me. Maybe I can at least convince her to let me go out on the porch! I’ll update you all tomorrow or the next day!

February 6th, 2011

2011-02-06T19:46:00.001-06:00

It’s still cold here in Wisconsin, although it has been alternating with weather warm enough so Mother Nature dumps snow on us. I don’t mind the snow, but Mom does now that she is driving. I’m often glad that I am a bear and not a human who has to go to work no matter what the weather! This website says that our area has had 46 inches of snow! It looks like we’re a few weeks ahead of our normal snowfall schedule!

What do you all do when the weather turns bad? I wish Mom would let me go outside and play in the snow. She’s usually more likely to want to curl up on the couch with lots of blankets!

We did have a new friend move into our house recently. She is an American Girl Addy, and we’re waiting until Mom washes her hair before we post a picture. Mom found her at Goodwill like most of my Build-a-Bear friends.

I’m going to go now and continue trying to talk my mom into letting me go outside! Talk to you all later!

January 24th, 2011

2011-01-24T07:09:00.001-06:00

My mom has been enjoying posting pictures of my plush friends and I on Flickr lately. We both admire the photos that other people take of their plushie friends.

My mom says that the light inside our house isn’t quite as nice as the light outside on a sunny day.

In this picture, you can see that I am very well loved bear. While I don’t think I was ever as fuzzy and soft as Foster, my big brother, my fur does show some wear! On the bigger picture on Flickr, you can also see all the little white hairs embedded into my fur. They’re from Princess, our old English bulldog!

Do any of you show wear? Mom says that it is a badge of honor. One of the people who post to a doll mailing list that she lurks says that it is better to show wear then to spend an eternity sitting on a shelf! What do you think?

January 20th, 2010

2011-01-20T19:31:00.000-06:00

In our blogging hiatus, my friends and I were kept very busy. Mom spends some of her free time sitting downstairs. It’s where her computer is and where the dog can reach her. I spend most of the time cuddled up close to her and my friends spend time sitting on top of the couch. We watch Mom and make sure she’s not getting into any trouble. I’m the cuddling bear, and the others keep an eye on what’s happening around us.

A few days ago, I was talking to my friends Oatuling and Marshall Sheldon and we started to discuss pajamas! Oatuling and his friend Dermule have recently got new PJs. I wanted to share ours, so Mom took our picture. This is what we spent a lot of time doing for the past few weeks!

We all sit around in our PJs! Do any of you have pajamas? Caleb technically has PJs, but rarely wears them because he spends a lot of time outside with Mom. Mine are so nice and warm!

January 18th, 2010

2011-01-18T19:08:00.000-06:00

Today’s post is about another thing that has caused our previous lack of posting. My mom bought herself a nook-color for Christmas. It’s an e-reader that can sort of be a computer at the same time. She can check her mail, Facebook, etc. with it, but she doesn’t like to type too much because it is tedious. It doesn’t really cut down on my cuddling time, just posting time.

Sometimes, she lets me play with it. It’s much easier to use then her itouch for my big paws.

Some of the time, I like to look at our pretty pictures on it. It’s very clear—even more clear then our computer. Granted, our computer is from 2007 and the nook-color is brand new, so we don’t hold it against the computer!

Other times, I read books on it. Right now, Mom and I are reading a book on geology. It’s interesting how old the rocks are!

And, of course, we have to check our email. We also like to search for words in books that we are interested in.

It’s a nifty device, but I am glad that Mom has returned to helping me blog!

January 16th, 2010

2011-01-16T19:05:00.000-06:00

Today’s blog post will be about one of the reasons why we didn’t post a lot in December. It was too cold outside to go out and take photos! Apparently Mom doesn’t want to go out in the cold for photography, despite the fact that she goes out all the time for work. Sigh. I think she’s got her priorities messed up!

Wisconsin has been doing a very fine job of snowing this winter. It seems like we’ve gone maybe three or four days at most without some kind of snow flurry. It’s usually much too cold for it to snow by this time in winter.

It does make the sky seem very crisp and clear though. The blue is especially pretty.

I’ve got some outside boots—Mom bought them to go with my fishing outfit. I think they would serve very nicely as winter boots. I could go outside like my friends Buttons Because and Jerry and Ben. I’ll have to work on that! Mom doesn’t like it if I get wet or dirty!

January 14th, 2011

2011-01-14T18:47:00.003-06:00

My mom says that I have been a very patient bear. She has been neglecting our posting duties lately. Part of it is recovering from the Christmas crazies at work, and a part of it was buying things on Ebay. She says that she has everyone she wants, so now it’s my turn to come back into the blogging world.
One of the things that Mom has been ordering online is a boy doll named Jake. She bought a few more Liv girl dolls at Target a few days ago and I helped her unbox them. I think that there is a lot of grief in unboxing dolls—teddy bears are so much more simple! She also bought all of the Monster High dolls—she says that she likes them because they’re the children of book characters! (I think she likes them because they come with all sorts of tiny little pieces. Sigh. Moms!)
My birthday was back on Christmas. My mom bought me a lot of clothes and a new cell phone! Mom says that we will take a photo of the new cell phone later!

Caleb and I went with Mom to the dentist office today. She was very nervous. I stayed in the car, but Caleb went inside with her. I’m glad that we can provide that kind of moral support!

I wanted to thank everyone for sending me Christmas cards and the like. I love getting mail. One of the things that Mom has promised me that we are going to do is send more mail out.

December 11th, 2010

2010-12-11T20:49:00.001-06:00

Hello everyone! Sorry that it’s been so long since I’ve blogged. Mom, who helps me type and such, has been very busy at work. It makes her tired, so we spend a lot of the time she’s not there just lounging around. Our computer is also having troubles communicating with the power cord.

Mom has two days coming in a row off, so maybe we can post some pictures then. We’ve got a lot to share!

I hope you’re all having a great holiday! I’m sure looking forward to Christmas! And my birthday is near then too—a Flickr friend of mine, Chunky van Monkey, had a birthday recently and got all sorts of nifty presents! He even got a great birthday hat! I’m hoping that Mom gets me one! Only time will tell. I will be back to regularly posting soon!

November 4th, 2010

2010-11-04T21:38:00.001-05:00

I’m sorry we haven’t posted lately. Mom has been busy with work. Last weekend, as a break from the Christmas crazies, Mom and a few of her friends from work went to the House on the Rock to the American Gods Anniversary Party and met Neil Gaiman! (He’s a famous author, who happened to also write a book named Coraline, which Mom LOVES!)She said that I was too big to bring with, so Caleb went with instead.

That guy in back is Neil Gaiman. Mom and her friends went to listen to him talk. They got to sit up front.

And then he talked. Mom and her friends got to sit up front. This made her very happy.

So after that, they waited in line for a while, and then he signed Mom’s book. (That’s my mom!)

This has made Mom a very happy camper. I’m hoping her good mood carries on for a while and she will help me post some more. If you want to see more pictures of the House on the Rock, they are at her DeviantArt page, along with Facebook. Her pictures are much better then the ones on their webpage!

We received some great mail that Mom has to process the pictures for! It’s bedtime, but Mom thought she’d say something so everyone would know. I’ll get her to process the photos tomorrow after she gets out of work.

October 16th, 2010

2010-10-16T19:04:00.001-05:00

Mom’s next day off is next Wednesday, so we’ve been pretty tired around here. On her day off though, we went back outside and took some pictures. They’re not as cool as the ones at the park, but still pretty awesome. She took the Liv dolls out as well, but she says that I can just post pictures of my friends and I.

The idea behind this photo-shoot came from a book that Mom read while she was at work. It encouraged people to take photographs from different angles.

Some of my friends got to come outside too. Mom let Milton come out because he matched the fall leaves on the ground so well.

He is the right shade of brown!

Foster got to come outside pretty much for the same reason.

Carabella was looking kind of lonely. Mom brought her outside and got some of the best pictures of the entire bunch!

If you would like to see the other photos that came out of this shoot, Mom has them here on our flickr account.

Otherwise, things have been pretty quiet around here. Mom works and we wait for her. Sometimes we watch TV, and other times we read books. I’m hoping that she gets some more free time so we can go and do something interesting like the park again!

October 6th, 2010

2010-10-05T08:15:00.001-05:00

This is going to be a brief entry because I only have one thing to share. Mom found a relative of one of our blog readers at Goodwill a few days ago. We’re not quite sure how they’re related, but Mom is glad that she found her.

Meet Emily, a relative of some way of Emmi Jade, the authoress of Emmi Jade’s Cottontail Chronicles. She is a tan swirl Build-a-Bear bunny.

She has been fitting in nicely around here. Ruby, who happens to be the first Build-a-Bear that Mom rescued from Goodwill, has been spending time with her and introducing her to all our friends!

Mom took Robinson and I outside a few days ago and took some pictures that she wants to share. It wasn’t outside to the park, but it was still nice to get out and sit in the sun. We’ll post those later. I hope you’re having a great day!

October 2nd, 2010

2010-10-02T17:21:00.001-05:00

It took a few days for my mom to remember that we promised to post the photos that we were going to take. It turned out to be even a bigger photograph session then we thought. Mom took me to the park and took me out of her backpack! Granted, there wasn’t a soul around, but this is a big move!

I’m going to admit that I was a little scared. This was the first time I’ve been out of the backpack when she’s been off the property. Considering that I’ve been with her for over six years, this is a big thing! Caleb came with me like he almost always does.

Here I am at the top of the slide. This seemed to be the only bear sized thing I could do.

But it turned out to be a bit too adventurous for a small bear’s first playground visit. That was fast!

So I sat in the swing for a while. This was much more my speed. Meanwhile, Caleb was running around. He wasn’t afraid of anything—being seen by other humans, heights, or even things much bigger them himself.

Mom chased him around a bit and finally got him to come back to the backpack. It was kind of cold so we both climbed back into the safety of the backpack.

So that was my first adventure out in the world off my property. Mom says that we will try for another place someday, although it might not be till next summer. But I am glad that I got to go somewhere like this at all!

These pictures have been a big hit on my Mom’s flickr page. We’re trying to reach out the other plushie photographers!

Have a good day! I hope everything is going well for you all!

September 25th, 2010

2010-09-25T11:27:00.001-05:00

Mom checked our blogger dashboard yesterday and discovered that we had not posted since the 11th! Egads! It’s mostly because Mom hasn’t really felt like posting—work has been giving her grief, so we sit on the couch and read when she is home. No photography trips outside. If it gets a bit more sunny outside today, we will post some pictures.

But for right now, Mom thought we would post a pretty fall-in-Wisconsin picture.

The leaves are turning pretty colors now. Our front yard is mostly apple trees. Apple tree leaves don’t really turn colors—well, I guess they do turn a color—but it’s brown instead of this pretty yellow!

These leaves come from this tree. It is a silver maple. (Acer saccharinum) Mom says that it is native to the eastern United States and Canada. We have three big silver maples on our property. They are over 100 years old. The gentleman who used to live in this house moved down the road when it got too much for him to handle by himself. He said that his parents planted the trees before he was born!

Now I am going to try to convince Mom to go outside and take some pictures! Wish me the best of luck!

September 11th, 2010

2010-09-11T21:03:00.001-05:00

The most exciting thing to happen around here in the past few days was that Mom took a bunch of us outside on the porch for to take photographs. Mom has revived her Flickr account to post pictures to various teddy bear and doll groups that she had been previously merely browsing. Some of the people who post on the travel and companion doll lists that she lurks on post such lovely pictures. Some of the pictures that she takes of us are very lovely too!

One of the reasons that Mom wanted to take photos was that we have a new friend. It’s been a while since I’ve introduced anyone here.

This is Majorie, a Read Teddy Small-Fry from Build-a-Bear. Mom has been seeing advertisements for them online for a while, but this is the first time that she got to go to the store and buy one. Marjorie came home with us because most of the clothes that they had were for girl bears. But the two outfits for boy bears came home with us too—because Mom thought that Caleb might be the right size.

And it turned that Mom was right, but just barely. These clothes were VERY tight on Caleb. Technically, I have the exact same sweatshirt, but in big Build-a-Bear size, so we’re going to be twins! Mom says that it is impressive on how the large head made Marjorie seem to be a lot bigger then Caleb. It doesn’t matter though—everyone is happy!

And because the doll photography is the reason that Mom started to go back to Flickr and look, Tilia and Lindera came outside to get their photos taken. Mom had found these two fancy dresses in a grab bag at a thrift store and wanted to make sure they would fit before she started repairing them.

Sigh, I think we’ve talked enough about clothes! (I write this to make Mom happy—she spends a lot of time making sure that we look nice for the photo session!) Fall is beginning where we live. Some of the trees are beginning to turn colors. In the front yard, we have about a dozen or so apple trees. The apples, which don’t get treated with anything to get rid of the bugs, are ripe now.

Are there any signs of your changing seasons? I’m sure Mom will take plenty of pictures of the changing fall leaves once they start in earnest!

September 6th, 2010

2010-09-06T19:49:00.001-05:00

Mom and I went onto the BearPlace website and discovered that we did not share the newest picture she took. If we didn’t share it there, we certainly didn’t share it here!

This is the postcard that Berrie and Feddie sent to me from CHINA! Isn’t that cool! Mom showed me where China is on the map! She was also reading a book about a guy who traveled through China, so we’ve been extra interested in it! Thank you so very much!

My other great find is a bear sized camping backpack. Mom found it at Goodwill! Now I can keep all sorts of things in here. I own a few other backpacks, but they are kind of small. I think Caleb will fit in here! Or maybe a book? Hm.

And to end this post with something pretty, this is a photo of one of Mom’s teddy bear sunflowers. Mom planted all sorts of pretty and different sunflowers this year, and this is the only teddy bear sunflower to make it to full grown. Our growing season is getting near the end, but we have already made plans for next year’s sunflower crop. We’re going to try to protect the sunflower seedlings from the birds, bugs, and other assorted things that would eat them.

I hope I have more to report next time. Mom has two days off in a row coming up, and I hope I can convince her to take me outside for a while! Hope you are all having a great day!

August 29th, 2010

2010-08-29T20:09:00.001-05:00

A few days ago, Mom took a few of my friends and me into the kitchen so she could cook supper. When we sit in the kitchen all together, we usually watch a movie. This time, we watched a TV show that Mom had bought at work. When she was a teenager, there was this show on the Food Network called Two Fat Ladies. It’s a British cooking show. The two ladies who were are on are very funny—and they cook food with lots of calories and butter. Mom says that since she shouldn’t eat the food, it’s much better to watch it being made on television!

I think it is a pretty funny show. I don’t quite grasp all the British humor, but I guess I haven’t watched it enough. We are finished with the first disc now—the first six shows. One of the ladies unfortunately passed away after twenty-four shows.

But now Mom can watch it over and over again. It turns out that it is also on the Cooking Channel now—but we don’t get that channel. Mom says that Good Eats is still probably her favorite TV show, but Two Fat Ladies is a very close second!

This clip is about alcohol, but Mom thought she should connect to something that was legally uploaded! (Acorn Media are the people who make the DVDs.)

I hope you are all having a great day. Mom took some pictures today that we will post later in the week!

August 28th, 2010

2010-08-28T15:21:00.001-05:00

Oh, things have been so quiet around here. Mom has been busy working, but she has this weekend off. A few days ago though, she took me out onto the porch and took some more pictures. She wants to post my picture to her DeviantArt account. The picture needs to be top quality to make it on there, so we’re going to take lots of photos until we find one that makes us both happy. Here is one of the first session.

Mom likes the bokeh in this photo. Bokeh is the shiny, misty background—the grass in this photo.

In this one, she likes the way the light is.

I like this one because it shows my shadow. Mom says that it isn’t lighted properly, but I don’t care! She says that I can post whatever pictures I want on my blog since it’s supposed to be about fun, not criticism! We will upload the rest of them to my Picasa album, and you can go and look at them. Which of the first two do you think is the better? Hm. I think it’s hard to decide!

August 20th, 2010

2010-08-20T12:50:00.001-05:00

This post is going to be image heavy because we received a package from Build-a-Bear yesterday! Robinson and I received new outfits!

This is my friend, Robinson. He’s really not an urban skater, but the outfit was on clearance on their website. This outfit has the added benefit of having drawstring pants—because he’s a very slender horse. Most of BAB’s pants fall off him—or they would if they weren’t held up by his tail! (It’s not a problem I have—I’m much more stout!)

My new fedora! Isn’t it snazzy! It really doesn’t fit me very well, but I don’t care!

Mom didn’t see this shirt in the stores when the Zoorific collection was out. We both love giraffes, so she wanted this shirt!

My new backpack!

And my new bedding. I’ve coveted Emmi Jade’s bedding—and once I saw that BAB was going to have bear sized bedding, I wanted that just as much! It’s sports themed, which really isn’t my thing, but it’s better then the pink girl stuff! Now I have to talk Mom into buying me the bed!

And finally, a group photo of everyone who came downstairs to see what was in the package! I love all the presents!

August 16th, 2010

2010-08-16T19:56:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, my mom finally remembered to buy some greeting cards to send to my internet friends! She bought them and brought them home for me to pick!

She bought six cards because we have five international stamps and one friend who lives in the US. Well, we have two friends who live in the US, but only one address!

Here I am with a pen to start writing in them. Mom writes the messages, but I sign my name. It takes me a while to write, so it’s easier that way. So some of you will have a card to look forward to! Mom thought that it would be better if we left it as a surprise! I like nice surprises, so I agreed!

For the past two days, the weather has been incredibly nice. Mom has to work, so we didn’t go outside. But I did get to see some beautiful skies from the window!

Do you ever look up and try to imagine shapes in the clouds? Sometimes I do! I have seen boats, and flowers, and trains. These clouds are too wispy to see anything in them, but they are still scenic! These clouds are called cirrocumulus floccus. Mom showed me pictures of all the different kinds of clouds, and we are going to try to spot them. It will be a nice, calm way to spend some time outside!

August 12th, 2010

2010-08-12T23:22:00.001-05:00

Another quick post—because Mom mentioned something about tomorrow being Friday the 13th! I don’t know if I am a superstitious bear or not, but I think it’s best to err on the side of caution! I don’t have much to report anyways. The weather has been so incredibly hot lately for my mom that she doesn’t want to take me outside. And then she rambles on and on about something called mosquitoes, so I just agree to stay inside. We did venture out on the porch early one morning to show off my mail!

I got two lovely postcards! I do love getting mail. They were from Sullivan and Hammie!

And I received a very big package in the mail that contained a new book and some postcards! This is a book by Tat’s dad, Mr. Reardon! They are a part of a website called Bears on Location! I talk to Tat online via BearPlace! The book is about a pair of teddy bears that looks for treasure! I enjoyed it very much!

Mom wants to go to bed now, so I am going to end it here. I hope everyone is doing all right—and I hope the weather will cool off so Mom is more willing to take me outside! (Or she will take some other pictures inside!) Talk to you all later!

August 4th, 2010

2010-08-04T20:23:00.001-05:00

This is going to be a short post, because Mom says, that despite the fact that it is kind of early, we ought to be going to bed soon. Mom said that work ran her ragged, so she is tired. But we wanted to show you our newest find at our house!

A pink and yellow sunflower!

A yellow and orange sunflower!

Mom noticed a few days ago that there were a few sunflowers in bloom in our garden. At the BearPlace, we are having a sunflower growing competition. I fear that it is probably going to be a very narrow field of contestants. It seems to be unfriendly growing conditions for sunflowers in Europe this summer. It’s winter in Australia! That seems to only leave me and Spaulding and his family at Teddy Bears' Den.

This is the tallest sunflower right now. You will have sign up for BearPlace to see the photo of how tall it is in my garden. We both hope that we will get much taller sunflowers as time progresses! Last year the were REALLY tall!

Mom wants me to tell you all that she is going to write everyone back on Friday. She has been very lax in responding to people, so we are going to sit down and email everyone on then!

Talk to you all later!

July 29th, 2010

2010-07-29T16:24:00.001-05:00

So my Mom and Caleb went to the EAA yesterday and took a lot of pictures. Mom has been quite the shutter-bug once she got a 2GB memory card for her camera. She now has a 4GB one—which will hold over 1,000 pictures—even with her new camera!

The EAA, which stands for Experimental Aircraft Association, is actually a museum in a nearby town called Oshkosh. Every summer, they have what they call an Air-Venture Fly-in, where hundreds of people fly their plane there and they celebrate and show off their planes. It is a big thing in our area.

This plane was INSIDE the museum! Mom and her parents bought their wristbands inside the museum and had to wait in line for a while.

Mom liked the old planes the best. In fact, most of her pictures were the older planes.

They got to go INSIDE this plane! They paid five dollars per person to take a short tour through a very tiny space! She thought it was amazing that eight people worked in such a little space for so long under such extreme circumstances!

The nose of the plane!

A place for one of the people who operated the machine guns.

One of the machine guns!

Some ammunition. (Mom says that it is probably fake.)

Another machine gun.

One of the two propellers!

You know how in the Snoopy cartoons, he fights the Red Baron? Well, this plane is painted like the real Red Baron’s plane! It’s a kit plane, which means that they put it together, but it is still really cool.

The insides of the plane.

And she saw the Good Year blimp!

And lots and lots of planes take off! She said that it was a lot of fun and wishes that I could have went with. I like plane—not as much as I like trains, but they are still very cool. I hope you enjoyed our pictures!

July 26th, 2010

2010-07-26T08:34:00.001-05:00

Not much is happening around here that is worthy of posting about. Instead, I thought I would share some of Mom’s pictures from her recent trip to a nearby zoo. It is called the Northeast Wisconsin Zoo, and it is in Green Bay. She didn’t bring me—she says that I am too big to be carried all over the zoo—although I told her that I am much lighter then her camera or her purse!

These are koi, or Japanese carp. They were in a landscape/waterfall type thing, so Mom was able to get good pictures. I am not sure if she likes them because of the way she can get the nice pictures or their shininess!

This is a tortoise. Mom liked this picture because he was looking at her. Her new camera does a lot of things, but does not zoom in very well yet. (She needs to buy a new lens for it.)

This little critter is a prairie dog. They lived in an exhibit that didn’t have a fence on top of it, so Mom got to take this pretty picture.

This is Lucky, an albino alligator. Mom took this picture through the glass of the enclosure. She thought he looked kind of creepy floating there!

This was one of Mom’s favorite parts of the zoo. These are trumpeter swans. The adult swans produce a flock of babies every year that get released in Iowa to increase the wild population. This year, they did an especially good job of raising the babies! There are eight of them!

This is Blossom, a moose. She lives in an area overlooked by a building built up on pylons. You can watch her wander around her enclosure.

This was by far Mom’s favorite part. At this zoo, you can walk up a ramp to another building built up on pylons and feed the giraffes! She fed them some leaves!

This is Hodari, the male giraffe. He was a lot more impatient with the wait for the leaves. He paced around, and came to the building and looked around for the entire time that Mom waited. He was also first in line for the leaves when the zoo lady finally showed up.

And this is Zuri, the female giraffe. She waited in the back until the zoo lady showed up. She was equally happy to eat the leaves though, but she was much more lady-like!

And last but not least, the zebu. Mom likes cows and their relatives, so we have a lot of pictures of him. He was willing to eat the petting zoo food Mom got, but only if Mom hung over the side of the fence!

I hope you like the pictures! Mom has been busy with work lately, and does not have the energy to take me outside or other post worthy adventures! On Wednesday, she’s going to the EAA—so maybe we will have plane pictures to post!

July 19th, 2010

2010-07-19T23:33:00.001-05:00

Greetings, everybody! How are you all? Things around here have been quite all right! I am glad that we live on top of a small hill though! It’s been raining a lot around here, and there are some places that are flooded. Not exactly Mississippi level flooding, mind you, but still standing water! The place where my mom works had their parking lot flooded on the night when it was raining! We had quite the creek running through our backyard after it was all done!

The area where we live used to have marshes and swamps surrounding it. As more and more people moved out to the country, they filled in the swamps and the marshes to make more land that was suitable to house building. Unfortunately, that took away the land that the water used to soak into. So now we get overflow—and creeks running through the backyard. Upstream—and further up the road, one person had their entire side yard filled with water! It doesn’t bother Mom and her family too much, because all that gets washed out is grass, but she is sure that it probably irks the people who live upstream because it probably kills their trees!

Our newest friend here at our house is really not a part of my hug. Mom found her at Goodwill. She bought her for Tilia! Now she has a friend. It turned out that her name is Lindera. She is another Liv Doll. Tilia lent her some clothes, and they’ve been talking ever since. Tilia seems to enjoy having company! Mom says that they both think that she ought to invite a boy home! (Mom doesn’t think that’s going to happen, but don’t tell them that!) Neither of them seem to be too interested in being travel companions (Tilia was bought to be a travel doll, but it didn’t turn out!), so Caleb doesn’t have anything to worry about. Tilia doesn’t want to mess up her hair, and Lindy seems to be a little worried about getting too far away from Tilia at this point! I’ll post some more pictures later. Tilia likes to get dressed up and have her picture taken, and I would guess that Lindy would too. Sigh, sometimes, girls are so predictable!

Mom says that I have to go to bed now, so I’m going to go upstairs! I hope you all are having a great day! Talk to you later!

July 15th, 2010

2010-07-15T11:02:00.000-05:00

Today’s news is that last week, my Mom took me to the local zoo. It’s a little zoo that we live down the road from. She didn’t take me out of her backpack, but I’m working on that. I thought I would share some of the pictures that she took. I live down the road from these animals! They’re all in cages, so I’m certainly not afraid of them. It’s just a strange idea!

A zebra—Mom loves horses and their cousins, so she was happy when this one turned out so nicely.

A lion! This one made Mom happy because in spite of the bars of the cage, you can still see him very clearly. Some of her photos of animals in cages didn’t turn out right.

Mom’s favorite part of the entire zoo is the petting area. She loves farm animals, so it is as close as she can get to some of her favorite critters!

A miniature cow!

A pot-bellied piglet!

A domesticated female mallard. (Female mallards are her favorite kind of wild duck, so this makes her happy to have such a pretty picture.)These are Swedish blue ducks.

And finally, a Pekin/Call duck cross. Mom says that it’s probably not either all alone because she was a rather big ducky with a small-ish beak. These things make her happy, so I just nod!

Over the next couple of days, she’s going to post more pictures at her deviantART account (and on facebook) if you would like to see the rest of them. These were with her new camera!

Next time, I will tell you more about some mail I got. Mom has to take photos first—but we will post them as soon as we can!

July 13th, 2010

2010-07-13T08:45:00.000-05:00

Today’s news is a little less dramatic! I have a new shirt! I am mentioning this because it’s a very cool shirt—it has a dinosaur on it! Mom found it at Target in the baby section!

It says ‘munch-a-saurus’! I like the teeth! Nom nom!! Mom says that it is trying to be a T-rex! ROAR!! I do like dinosaurs! Maybe not as much as I like outdoor nature things, but they’re awfully cool to read about in books! It’s hard to imagine that they roamed the same earth that we’re on millions and millions and millions of years ago! Do you like dinosaurs?

July 11th, 2010

2010-07-11T08:29:00.001-05:00

I have lots of news to share. I have decided to spread it out a bit. The first is that I got a package from Beanie a few days ago! It made me very happy! I love getting mail and packages! Mom says that I get more good mail and packages then she ever would!

Ta-da! My package!

Princess, our dog, decided to help. She is always very interested in things that come in the mail. Or in bags from outside. Or pretty much anything she can stick her head inside and sniff.

Here we are after Mom opened it. Princess is making sure she approves of everything inside!

Look at the beautiful bag! It has all sorts of cool things inside like pencils and paper! I was very impressed! Mom says that we will try our hand (or paw) at making a card and post our results!

Isn’t it pretty! And it’s even Mom’s favorite color, purple!

And a postcard! Yeah!! We all thank Beanie and his Mom for the great present! We are gathering our own package to send back!

July 6th, 2010

2010-07-06T23:22:00.001-05:00

Boy, it’s hot and humid where I live. I am glad that I am a mostly indoor bear. Mom has tried to take me outside when she wants to take pictures. Unfortunately, the lens of her new camera fogs up with all the humid air!

This is my new friend, Pearl. Mom found her at Goodwill. She is the first Build-a-Bear pig that has come to live with us. Yesterday, Mom showed her Sullivan’s blog, and she was very interested! We’re not quite sure if they are cousins or not, because Pearl is so much bigger then Sullivan! We figured that there’s got to be some kind of plush porcine brother/sisterhood no matter what! She has been getting along with some of my other barnyard friends like Fleur and Opal. Mom says that we will possibly take some pictures tomorrow of everyone having fun. (Since we can’t go outside and take pictures!!)

Mom is really tired after a day at work, so we are going to go to bed now! Talk to you later!

July 4th, 2010

2010-07-04T20:01:00.001-05:00

Happy Fourth of July, my fellow Americans!

My friend, Eldritch the dragon, although with Kolo Martin, posted a meme-like thing consisting of five different questions to answer. I decided to answer the questions that Eldritch posed! I do love memes!

1) How old are you (in human years)?: I am six years old in human years, although my mom and I say that I am always eight years old.
2) If you could go anywhere in the world that you've never been where would you go?: I think that I would like to go to England to meet my friends from BearPlace!
3) What's your favourite thing on TV?: I love the Food Network like my mom—especially the show, Good Eats!
4) Food or sleep?: Hm. That is a hard decision. I really like chocolate, but I really like naps!
5) Do you have any lucky charms, and if so, what are they?: Hm. Mom says that I am her lucky charm!

The picture is of a white tiger lily. My mom saw it at a restaurant that they go to every Friday. It was in the middle of hundreds of orange ones. Since orange is the color that they usually come in, this was a mutant flower!

Mom was taking pictures of a pink lily and we thought a while about what was our favorite colors and why. Mom’s favorite color is purple, while I think my favorite color is blue. I admit that I also like purple because flowers really don’t come in blue that much, so I mostly see purple ones! What is your favorite color?

June 29th, 2010

2010-06-29T12:48:00.001-05:00

Sorry for the long time posting. My mom spent some of her vacation gone, and we spent a lot of time napping! But for her birthday on Saturday, she and her mom went in half and half for a new camera! We’re just starting to learn how to take pictures with it—it is one step up from our old camera!

So you all will probably get even more pictures in my entries for a while. It’s a big camera though, and Mom probably won’t take it very far!! Mom is a very happy person though, because she thinks that the new camera’s extra specialness comes up much more during the flower pictures that she likes so much.

Otherwise, things have been pretty quiet around here. I don’t mind! We have had one new friend move in. Her name is Pearl. I will properly introduce her when Mom takes a new picture. We have one that we used to put her on the Picasa website, but it is a bit blurry!

Mom has been busy with work after her vacation. While I do have a job taking care of my mom, I am glad that I do not have to leave the house to go to ‘work’ all the time. Mom doesn’t seem to always enjoy it! Do any of you have a ‘work’ that you have to go to?

June 19th, 2010

2010-06-19T16:22:00.001-05:00

My mom is on vacation for the next eight days. She says that we might go outside or some other adventures. It all depends on the weather, because Mom is a bit of a wimp about really hot temperatures. She would much rather sit inside with the air conditioning then go out in the heat!

Things have been pretty calm around here lately. Wednesday was the first nice, sunny day that Wisconsin had to offer in quite some time. I know that it has to rain for the flowers and plants to grow, but I don’t always like cloudy days. Mom says that it is probably long stretches of cloudy days that I don’t like. I don’t think I could live in a place like Finland where my friends at Children of Arotox live. Sometimes, they only get a few hours of sunlight—and then that’s not even very bright sunlight! But I guess they’re used to it. Right now, it seems to be spring or early summer and they’ve got lots of beautiful flowers!

Caleb, Milton, and I have been sitting on the couch with Mom this afternoon. We’re watching TV while Mom reads her book. It’s called the Great Railroad Bazaar and it is by a gentlemen named Paul Theroux. I usually love books on trains, but this one is more about the people that he meets on the trains then the actual trains themselves. We love to read around here. My favorite books are the mouse books by Kevin Henkes. He wrote books like Owen, Wemberly Worried, and Lilly and the Purple Plastic Purse.

June 15th, 2010

2010-06-15T15:35:00.000-05:00

Mom recently bought a new movie and we went downstairs to watch it. She saw it in the movie theaters, but wanted to share it with us! This time, I chose Cleveland and Taft to come downstairs with me.

This is the movie that Mom bought. She saw it in the theater in 3D. We don’t have anything that would make the movie 3D, but we do have a fancy flat screen TV in the kitchen!

Cleveland and Taft were fascinated by the movie. We’ve all watched plenty of TV, but this movie was very visually stunning. We decided that our favorite character was Cheshire Cat. (Mom’s favorite was the Mad Hatter!)

We had a lot of fun watching the movie. Did any of you see it? I still like Cars the best, but this is a very good movie!

June 14th, 2010

2010-06-14T15:20:00.000-05:00

My mom got a delivery from Build-a-Bear a few days ago. I want to introduce my new friends! They are both part of their Zoorific collection.

This is Celosia, the pink flamingo!

Upon her arrival, she won over all the girls here with her flowers! She says that it is called a lei. She explained that while she is not Hawaiian, she appreciated their culture and was glad to be dressed up for her trip here. She joins Opal as the only two birds in my hug!

This is Gambia, the giraffe!

It turned out that Gambia is Charlotte’s lost cousin! They were both so glad to see each other! Mom and I were very glad to reunite another family!

Don’t they look happy to see each other again! Charlotte is a World Wildlife Foundation giraffe that BAB made about five years ago. She is one of the founding members of our hug!

Mom also got me a present. As part of the collection, BAB made a carrying bag. It turned out that it also came with a bear-sized one! Technically, I fit in the one that is Mom’s size, and Caleb fits in the one that is my size! We think that would be a very funny picture!

I am going to go now and talk to my new friends! I hope you are having a great day!

June 13th, 2010

2010-06-13T13:18:00.001-05:00

Lately, I’ve been getting lots of mail! It makes me so excited! The first was from my friends from BearPlace. They met up in a town called Arundel in England. (I couldn’t go—I’m on the wrong side of the ocean!) Instead, they sent me a great postcard with all their signatures on it!

I thought it was great! I think the closest I’m going to get to such a cool meet up any time soon is if Mom and I would visit Buttons! He’s from a nearby state!

Next, we got two cards! This time Mom got a card too! It made her very happy as well! These were from Hammie and his Gea! We will write you back later today! Aren’t they beautiful!

Mom will get me some more postcards or regular cards as soon as she remembers! Sometimes, Moms can be awfully forgetful!

June 6th, 2010

2010-06-06T12:12:00.001-05:00

Mom has been working these things she calls ‘overnights’ lately. The place she works is getting new carpet, and they have to have someone to guard the stuff. It was kind of scary for me, because she wasn’t there at night to sleep with! But now she is hopefully done with such things and will be able to stay with me at night!

Caleb went to work with her for each of the nights. Our Only Hearts friends went with him for company in his sleeping bag. He said that it was very strange to sleep safely snuggled in Mom’s purse, but it was an interesting experience. Since she was one of the two people who could get into the breakroom, Caleb got to spend more time out of the purse and looking around. He said that Mom’s fellow co-workers don’t really clean up after themselves very well, and Mom agreed wholeheartedly!

I’ve gotten some great mail that I will share as soon as Mom isn’t so tired all the time. She has the whole day today off, so I think she will feel better tomorrow.

May 30th, 2010

2010-05-30T13:34:00.001-05:00

My mom has been having a ‘Bad Time’. Things are mostly back to normal, but the threatening ghost of the ‘Bad Time’ is clouding things. We have spent a lot of time, in her room, trying not to get to ‘Worked Up’ over things we cannot control. I have been providing Mom a lot of moral support and she says that she is very glad that I am her bear. We have been through some tough times together, and she award me with my very own badge! She says that it is kind of like an online version of a trophy. I am glad she spent some time making me such a pretty thing! (She says that it is her Photoshop Elements skills for those people who know what she is talking about.)

She says that she will make a badge for anyone else if they would like one and are willing to message Mom. She can make it any color and can try to find a suitable clipart for you! She says that she likes sharing! We are going to go and have some quiet time!

May 25th, 2010

2010-05-25T23:30:00.001-05:00

A small Caleb and Carabella update! They must have had some time to talk, because now they will sit near each other. Caleb still has not told me what is happening, but I am glad that they are getting over it. I was worried there for a little bit! I don’t like it when plushies in my hug are mad at each other! Maybe Robinson or Fleur has given them some advice! They all have been spending a lot of time together while Mom is at work!

It has been incredibly hot here in Wisconsin for the past few days at approximately 90 degrees Fahrenheit or 32 degrees Celsius. As an indoor bear, it hasn’t really bothered me too much. But as a bear to a human who goes outside, it ends up affecting me. There is air conditioning here at home, but obviously not outside! The air conditioning at the place that Mom works is malfunctioning at best, so it makes her a rather cranky Mom. Yesterday morning before she went to work, we spent the entire time curled up under the blankets with the fan on full blast. I am glad that I am a bear who does not need to go outside! I’ll go out any time she wants me to, but I don’t have to!

As long as we water them, the plants and flowers have been really happy with the heat. Mom and I took this picture of a chrysanthemum. The flowers have been blossoming, and the plants have been growing. This past weekend, Mom’s parents planted the garden when she was at work. I did not get to help, but she promised to take me out there so I could see the work they did in the next couple of days. Now I will have to be patient and wait for everything to germinate!

May 20th, 2010

2010-05-20T08:11:00.001-05:00

We have a new friend here at our house. This is the first time that the bear in question wasn’t exactly glad when Mom took her out of the bag to introduce her to all of us. Well, she wasn’t really mad—she just didn’t expect to see one of my hug!

This is Carabella. She is a Chadsworth Russ Berrie. Mom found her at Goodwill a few days ago. When she got out of the bag, she saw Caleb, and she frowned! Neither of them will really explain why or how they know each other! Caleb, who usually loves to get his picture taken for my blog, only very hesitantly accepted to be photographed with Carabella. Mom says that we shouldn’t make them tell us—but that they will tell us when they feel like it. Both of them say that it isn’t anything terrible, but that they just don’t want to talk about it! Right now, Caleb is uncharacteristically stuck at my side, while Carabella is spending time with my friend, Fleur.

At first, I thought it might be that Caleb was peeved that Mom brought in a new friend his size that he would have to share clothes with, but Mom mentioned that she has plenty of girl clothes for her. Carabella does not want to be a travel bear, so it’s not that either. We will have to wait and see what they say!

May 15th, 2010

2010-05-15T22:44:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, Mom took me for a walk to the gas station. She says that I technically entered the gas station, although it was in her backpack. The last time we went for a walk, she went to a park and took me out and I had a nice time in the swing. This time there was a lot of small children around, so Mom didn’t. But I enjoyed the smells and the nice weather anyways!

Today, on the other hand, we went outside! It was time to water the plants on the porch. Mom mostly always takes me when she does things on the porch, and sometimes she takes some of my friends. Today, she took Taft, Cleveland, and Briggs out! Taft and Cleveland were all for it, but Briggs wanted to stay inside and take a nap. Mom and the rest of us convinced him that he ought to go outside to enjoy the nice weather, and he begrudgingly agreed. He ended up enjoying himself, I think—although he is a serious fellow and keeps his emotions close!

I know the rest of us had a lot of fun. Mom won’t let us too near the water hose—she says that bear fur and water don’t mix well—and I don’t want to risk any bath or laundry time! She did let me near the camera, and we all discussed and arranged the flowers to take the best photos! We also decided that Mom needs to start planting the plants and flowers that she bought before she should buy any new ones! She’s got quite the backlog!

It’s getting closer to gardening time. The weather has improved over the past two days, and Mom says that it is a good sign that we are getting closer to summer! I want to go outside and plant the vegetables we have and get lots of produce to eat! I can’t wait!

May 12th, 2010

2010-05-12T21:25:00.002-05:00

Things have been very gray around here. The average temperature for the past couple days has been around 45 degrees Fahrenheit or 7 degrees Celsius. Most of the plants we have bought are living inside until it gets consistently warmer at night. It actually looks kind of funny—it looks like a garden nursery in our laundry room!

My friends, Spaulding and Teddy, posted some pictures of the progress in their garden. Since the progress in my garden is either biding time in the laundry room or outside in the dark and gray, I thought I would post some pictures of the flowers that we had out on the porch.

This is a peppermint striped geranium. It has been changing colors as different flowers blossom in each cluster.

Mom’s favorite flower is a tulip, and her favorite color is purple, so she likes these flowers especially. When they opened, they revealed a lighter purple inside. It was very pretty.

I like this tulip the best. I think the red color is especially pretty. It is kind of shiny. These tulips were of some of the first to blossom and they are gone now. Mom says that when they all finish blossoming, we are going to put them in the flower bed on the side of the house so we can enjoy them in future summers!
I hope you liked the photos! I hope that the weather will change here in Wisconsin soon so we can share some gardening photos!

May 9th, 2010

2010-05-09T18:22:00.001-05:00

It’s been pretty boring around here, so we haven’t posted lately. Mom has been working, working, working—and does not have a lot of time for adventures. Today, she traveled to where her grandmother lives to have Mother’s Day dinner at a restaurant. I did get to go with her, but she did not take any pictures of me when we were there. While her family was in the restaurant, Caleb and I played around in the car—read Mom’s books—and listened to music. Mom’s ipod is a very useful little thing!

Gardening season is near. Mom says we cannot plant the garden until the nights stay warmer. It has been very close to freezing the last couple of days—and that’s not good for the baby plants or seeds. I am looking forward to planting! My friends from BearPlace and I are going have a sunflower growing contest. Since some of our friends are from Australia, it will be mostly a sunflower growing watch! (It is getting to be winter there.)

Mom found some local postcards, so now I have to convince her to go and get some international stamps so I can send them out!

April 27th, 2010

2010-04-27T22:32:00.001-05:00

My friends Sullivan and Hammie have posted pictures of their flowers, so I thought I might as well. Mom took me outside a few days ago to photograph the tulips. She took a photo of me with the tulips! These are some orange tulips, but we have red ones too. What is your favorite color of flowers?

Things have been very quiet here. Spring has really started to show its colors in Wisconsin. The cherry tree is flowering now, and the apple trees are beginning to flower. The grass is very, very, very green!

My mom’s favorite flowers are tulips and sunflowers. What are yours? Mom likes taking photos of flowers. She says it is the only way to preserve their beauty forever. I like the feel of flowers best. Mom says that I have to touch them carefully—I enjoy the soft, silkiness of the petals so much!

We are getting closer to the time when we can plant things outside. Regular spring has returned to Wisconsin. The nights are below freezing or nearly so. Mom says that it is baby plants would die if we put them outside now. I wouldn’t want that to happen, so I am going to try to be patient and wait.

Mom came home today from her shopping trip with some new clothes for both Caleb and I. The snazzy Hawaiian print shirt is human clothes, and Caleb’s new outfit is from the Build-a-Bear ‘Build-Me’ collection from Target. She was glad to find it because they did not make many clothes for boy bears!

Mom wants me to tell you that we figured out a way to email Bob and Dilly and Hammie to exchange snail mail addresses through Google Friend Connect. It is the way that you ‘follow’ my blog and vice versa. It said that it was going to deliver an email to your email address. Both Mom and I hope that it works! She also wants me to mention that Blogger is having some kind of difficulty and won’t let us approve some of our blog comments right now—but we’re going to give it some time before we start worrying! (Mom does most of the computer worrying, actually!)

April 19th, 2010

2010-04-19T18:55:00.001-05:00

I have several things to report! Firstly, I received another postcard! This time it is from my friend, Sullivan McPig! He lives in the Netherlands! I love getting mail. Mom says that she is on the look out for more interesting postcards. We will then fill them out and send them on their way all over the world. I think it is really amazing that a little piece of paper can start a journey here in the Midwest and travel all over the world—and get to the right person that I intended it for! It’s really amazing! And to imagine that they did the same thing before computers and the such!

Mom, Caleb, Robinson, Stegner, and I spent a nice afternoon out on the porch. It is probably about 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees C) outside right now. It’s certainly not short-sleeve t-shirt weather for Mom, but it is plenty nice enough! We mostly admired the blossoming trees and the vibrant green grass. Then Mom noticed that one of the tulips she had planted earlier in the month had blossomed! (She bought them already started, so all the tulip had to do was blossom!) There are more of them ready to blossom, so I will keep you all updated!

We also have some tulips that are planted in the side garden of our house. They are orange tulips. They do not flower as often as they could. Mom says that they need more room to grow. I don’t think it matters! Whatever flowers we get are good!

And lastly, I have received a late Easter present. Mom said that she felt bad that everyone got candy and the like, so she found this little critter for me. His name is Edmund. He is a very, very soft bunny. He has not met Pine, my puppy, yet. Mom says that it will probably go all right, since Pine is quite a bit smaller then Edmund! I admired Jeff Ogre’s bunny, Mr. Cool, from the BearPlace, so I am glad Mom found me this bunny!

April 14th, 2010

2010-04-14T22:19:00.001-05:00

I received two postcards yesterday in the mail from my friend, Berrie, from BearPlace. Berrie is a penguin and she lives with her family in Australia! Her brother is Fed Bear, who lets her blog sometimes! They are a very well traveled family and have been to many interesting places. Fed Bear is going to the UK to meet up with some of our BearPlace friends later in the year! Oh, I wish I could go!

My postcards are of giraffes and penguins. Berrie posed a question on the website about which one that we preferred. Mom loves giraffes, so I said that! It turned out that we were picking which postcard we were going to receive!

I have recently joined my BearPlace friends in sending postcards! I only had five of them, but I will get more of them if you have not received one. If you would like a postcard and I haven’t contacted you, you can join BearPlace and email me through there or comment on the blog and we can work out the exchanging of information. I wish I could post my email address here, but Mom says that we don’t want to get any spam! Mom went to the post office to get fancy stamps that will make the postcards go all over the world. She will have to go back, so it might take a bit for the next set of postcards to depart!

Mom finally got our Google Analytics account to work. We had been trying to insert the tracking code thingie into the template without success, but after redoing the blog, we tried again and it seems to work. I really don’t care too much about blog traffic, but it is interesting to see the number of people who do visit. We’re only going to be able to see the traffic going forward, so Mom says we ought to still keep the website counter.

The owies in my paws are still an issue. Mom keeps my paws covered up most of the time. We will look into the place that Christy in OH sent us. With all the bathing and washing machine rides that have been occurring online lately, I don’t know if I want to remind her about it too much!

Mom has found some leather for Jefferson’s bridle. Now she has to get some glue to fasten it together. Jefferson was a very understanding horse and stood very still when Mom was trying to cut the pieces to length. He said that it was very hard not to twitch when there were scissors so very close to his ears and eyes! I can totally understand that!