November 14th, 2009

Things have been pretty quite around here lately. Mom finished uploading all the pictures to the Picasa folder and has labeled everyone. She’s been spending a lot of time at work. I hope that this Christmas season goes by quickly! It stresses her out a lot.

In an attempt to help Mom feel better, we decided that I would share a happy story with you. A few weeks ago, Mom found a Build-a-Bear at Goodwill that looked awfully familiar. On a whim, she brought him home. It turned out that the bear’s name was Gabriel, and he was the long-lost brother of one of my friends in our family, Pamela. They were very glad to see each other! Don’t they look happy! Mom was glad to be able to reunite a family!

It was kind of like when Mom found Friday, Robinson’s little brother—or Hyacinth, their cousin! Mom recently found a horse that might be their cousin as well—they’ve been trying to figure out how they might be related. It seems like a lot of Build-a-Bear plushies are related! Her name is Saffron. Unfortunately, there really doesn’t seem to be a registry for plushies like there is for human births, so they’ve got to somehow figure it out.  I think she kind of looks like both Robinson and Friday and Hyacinth, so I think they’re related. She actually kind of looks like she’s part Robinson’s family and part Hyacinth’s family! What do you think? Granted, it really doesn’t matter! We’re all part of the big family no matter what.

We are making plans for Thanksgiving. Since some of my friends are birds, we really can’t have turkey. We’ve decided that potatoes, stuffing, and other vegetables are good though. Does your family have any plans? Mom and her parents are going to go up north to be with her grandmother on Thanksgiving day. I hope I get to go with like I did at the birthday party. That was grand fun!

We’re currently watching a special on the Food Network about the history behind the traditional meal of Thanksgiving. It’s making us very hungry! Mom especially wants stuffing, while I’m tempted by the green bean casserole. It’s so long until Thanksgiving! Mom says that it’s the same kind of food that they will serve at Christmas, so we’ll get two times to eat all that good stuff!

November 10th, 2009

Mom goes to school on most days of the week. Apparently, school for older people like her don’t last the entire day from start to finish. She’s got breaks in between classes. Today I’ve talked her into continuing on the folder on Picasa with photos of my friends who live her with me. She started last night, but things will go much faster with the school’s zooming internet connection. It’s mostly my Build-a-Bear friends, but it is a start!

She got about twenty of them uploaded. Her two final classes of the day were cancelled, so she came home instead. You have to have a Picasa account to view these pictures—we don’t want just anyone to see our photos. We’re not quite sure what link to share, but we’re hoping this one works.

Mom figured out how to make more pictures upload at once, so it will probably be finished sometime tonight. She says that the captions will have to wait until tomorrow. I’ll find more pictures of my friends to upload later, but these are the first batch. One day a few months ago, Mom brought almost everyone downstairs and took their picture. It was only almost everyone, so there are a few plushies whose pictures I will have to find in a different folder somewhere.

We have been mostly just lounging around. It has been unseasonably warm around here lately. It reached into the high fifties today. We sat out on the porch for a little bit. Mom then wanted to take a nap so we came back inside. I’m hoping that tomorrow after she gets done with school we can sit outside again. I know that it will soon be too cold to spend much time outside—at least without lots of layers of clothes. I guess with the cold will come snow! I do like to play in the snow!

The top photo is a part our World Wildlife Foundation family. Edwin, Eira, Daisy, Garnet, Zelda, and Charlotte are in this photo. It’s missing Lennox the lion and Timber the Wolf (he wasn’t here yet!) though. The second picture is our Kennel Pal family. Lincoln, Clover, Bernard, Harding, and Dutchess are in that photo. Reagan the beagle arrived in our family after we took the photo. Mom really likes sharing pictures of all of us! We’ve got such a big, great family that she likes to share! Does your mom or dad like to share pictures?

October 16th, 2009

Yesterday, I wrote in my journal. Mom thought that I could write in it more often, but things seem to have gotten in the way. We’ve obviously found enough time to post here, but not on the paper journal. But I guess it’s certainly not important enough to worry about how many times I write in the journal, just that I do!

Things have been pretty quiet around here. Mom did get an email back from that person who thought that one of my siblings might have been their bear. It turned out that it was a gentlemen—and did not seem to be very interested in the fact that Mom had found him a new bear on eBay. Mom’s mom—who we call Grandma—thinks that the gentlemen may have thought that Mom would have given Foster or I up to him!? Although he said that he would email Mom with any more news, he hasn’t—which adds to Mom and Grandma’s suspicions! Mom says that she would never give either of us up—she loves both of us way too much! I’m glad that we’re safe in our house with the doors locked. The idea that there are people out there who would take teddies away from their moms is really scary!

Timber, our World Wildlife Foundation wolf, wants to send a hearty hello to Lunar, the WWF wolf of our new online friend, neoguest1.  The newest post on their blog is about Build-A-Bear brown sugar puppies. We have a brown sugar puppy living here with us. Her name is Pilar. She doesn’t quite look like the puppies that are in the picture. Mom rescued Pilar from Goodwill in December of 2008, so she doesn’t know when she was made or anything like that. Pilar says that she would like to meet other brown sugar puppies online and is glad that our new friend found my blog.

Another one of our friends on our blog asked how many Build-a-Bear friends live here. Mom says that there a lot of Build-a-Bears living here. In the beginning, Mom only bought them from the BAB store, so there were only maybe a dozen. There was Robinson, Chloe, Fleur, Shirley, Charlotte and Milton. But then Mom discovered the fact that there are BAB plushies at Goodwill and our hug has skyrocketed! She probably still buys a few at the BAB store—like Timber or Snow, but most of the new friends are rescued from Goodwill.

Mom says that it is getting near bedtime. We’ve got Mom’s company all weekend, so maybe we’ll have some adventures. It all depends on the weather! No one wants to go out if it’s raining or snowing!

October 13th, 2009

Today the temperature barely rose above 40 degrees, so despite the fact that it still October, Mom started to bring out some of my winter clothes. These are some of my Build-a-Bear pajamas. I think I look very studious in them. I want a matching cap! Then maybe I can sit near the fireplace and read books and look very debonair! She also made me put on my undershirt, which kind of annoyed me. She reminded me about how I don’t want to get too cold, so I best keep my undershirt on. I’ve also got some long-johns, but she says we can wait until it snows! I’m hoping that it can wait until Christmas! I guess if it makes Mom happy, I’ll wear them—even if I don’t think bears are bothered about the cold as much as humans are!

We have had a pretty interesting week. Mom brought home a new friend from Build-a-Bear yesterday. Her name is Snow and she is a polar bear. Mom brought her home so she could be friends with Sullivan, a polar bear who already lives here with us. Mom says that it’s tough being a polar bear in such a warm climate as Wisconsin. Sullivan and Snow are much more used to Arctic cold! (After I looked at that link, I’m glad that I’m a teddy bear that lives in Wisconsin! Boy, it’s cold up there!)

Mom wants me to post this for you girls out there. She found a great dress at Build-a-Bear. I don’t think that it’s that cool—but Mom says that girls feel different about clothes then most boys! This is my friend Pirouette. She’s a purple pony from Build-a-Bear. Mom found her at GoodWill a long time ago. She had been wearing a horse blanket, but Mom says that this suits her better. I’m just going to trust what she says, because she’s the Mom and understands these things much more then me!

We got a comment on one of our older posts about a person who is missing a bear who looks just like me. Mom did a little internet research from the data on Foster’s tag (she cut mine off a long time ago) and found a teddy available for adoption on ebay that looks just like us. I hope that we’ve helped the person find their bear. We’ll keep you updated if the lady emails us back.

September 29th, 2009

I recently got a comment about my ‘Little Monster’ t-shirt—and Mom thought she would share where she buys most of our clothes. Some of our fancy clothes come from Build-a-Bear, but most of our sleeping clothes come from Goodwill. (The ‘Little Monsters’ t-shirt came from Target though!) Most of my Build-a-Bear friends and I can fit baby clothes—mostly preemie and 0-3 months. The ‘Little Monsters’ t-shirt, for instance, is folded up under the edge so it looks like it fits me better. Milton’s pajamas though fit him without any alteration. Mom likes it when she finds baby clothes that we fit because she says that they wear better. I’m not quite sure what that means, but she says that you might.

I thought I would introduce—or reintroduce my friend Ruby. She was my little sister Chloe’s friend first, but we get along just fine. She’s a Build-a-Bear bunny much like our new friend Migu Jade. Ruby loves listening to classical music, reading books about princesses and rabbits, and singing. She also likes to wear fancy bows on her ears. We get along so well because we both like music. While our music tastes differ some, we can talk a long time. Ruby was Mom’s very first Goodwill rescue. She saw her in the Easter plushies! Mom said that it was fate that she saw her there and didn’t pass her up! I’m glad that Mom found her there! She’s a real good friend to Chloe. Sometimes, Chloe, Ruby, and Fleur can talk for hours and hours and hours! It keeps us awake until Mom tells them to quiet down!

The other picture is of Ruby and some of her bunny friends. The lad on the left is Perth and the other girl is Dinah. We’ve got a few other Build-a-Bear bunnies around here. The next time we have a photo session around here, Mom can take a picture of all of them. Ruby is definitely the leader among the bunny plushies. She can sometimes get kind of bossy—but don’t tell her that I said that!

The weather is definitely getting colder around here. There is a frost advisory for our area tonight. The plants on the porch are covered up, but if it does freeze that would mean the end of the garden. Mom says that we’ve had enough produce to last us for a while, but I do like seeing the plants grow. Mom has been spending a lot of time outside for school, but still hasn’t seen a tree that has changed to red. She’s seen a few trees that have red and green on them though. That might have to be good enough!

September 25th, 2009

Greetings! We’re all more awake and ready to blog around here today. Mom is feeling much better and much more willing to help me type the evening away.  She says that the problem before was merely staying awake for the entire time that I wanted to type. It takes me quite some time to type! I’ve gotten better since I’ve been blogging more often. While it’s not as fast as Mom types, it’s much faster then the hunting and pecking thing I was doing before.

The book that we wanted to share with you is called Waddle! and it is by a gentleman named Rufus Seder. It is on Amazon.com among other places. The pictures move when you open the book and close it. The author has two other books, Gallop! and Swing! but they’re both in black and white. Waddle! is in color! Apparently this gentleman has a company where he sells his art!

This is our new friend. Her name is Tilia, and she is a Katie Liv Doll. Mom didn’t know if we should announce her arrival here, since it’s just plushies on here, but I told her that I didn’t mind. She is the only doll in a house full of plushies, so we’re working making her feel welcome. Mom has sort of wanted a poseable doll such as Tilia for a long time, but she was unable to afford the fancy ones that star in some of the blogs that we read. A while ago, on one of the mailing lists that we read, there was a mention that these were coming out! So she ordered one and she’s here. It didn’t take as long as some of the adoptions that we read about, but it was a long enough wait!

Caleb took her out with him when Mom went out for Friday night fish and I am afraid it didn’t go too well. She really didn’t like the ride in the purse. She says that she would much rather go for a trip in something a lot more sturdy. Caleb didn’t quite understand why she would care so much—since going on a trip is so exciting. Mom explained to him that sometimes, for girls, keeping tidy is more important than any kind of adventure. Sometimes, I don’t understand girls! I’d love to be able to go out to supper with Mom, even if it’s just in a backpack! I would love to go for the car ride alone! Not to mention all the cool things that would be at the restaurant! But Mom says that everyone finds different things fun, and Tilia doesn’t want to get all messed up! At least Caleb still wants to go. He thinks that all the tumbling around is part of the fun!

This is me in my new shirt. Mom bought it at Target. For a moment, I thought she meant that I was a monster, but she says that it’s just a funny thing. I like the little Frankenstein creature that is the ‘O’ in monsters! Do any of you dress up for Halloween? I don’t have a Halloween costume exactly—I have plenty of t-shirts and the like. One of my bear friends, Sanna, has a Halloween witch costume that I will show you one day. Bentley, our new kennel pal friend, has a glow in the dark cape. Hm. I think those are the only Halloween costumes we have! Maybe we’ll have to fix that! Maybe I could be a wizard for Halloween! Or a firefighter! There are lots of possibilities! Maybe Mom will buy me the Iron Man costume at Build-a-Bear! That would be pretty sweet!

September 24th, 2009

Things have been pretty quiet around here. For the past few days, Mom’s been sick. She says that she has the flu.  We think that she’s mostly just tired, because that’s all she did—sit on the couch and sleep. I don’t mind at all—I get to spend the whole day with her! But now she feels better, and we’re hoping it lasts. Mom’s much more prone to help me blog when she feels better.

We do have one important thing to note. A few days ago, Mom went shopping and came home with a new friend. While it is not as many new friends just arrived at our new friend Buttons’ house, he’s still a big deal to us! His name is Bentley, and he’s a Portuguese water dog kennel pal from Build-a-Bear.  Mom thinks that BAB picked a Portuguese water dog due to the fact that the First Family has a new puppy named Bo.

Mom says that we need to go to bed. She’s got to go to work tomorrow morning, and wants to be well rested. We’ll blog more tomorrow—we have a brand new book that we want to share with you. Frankly, I think it amuses Mom more then it amuses us, but I thought maybe you’d want to share it with your humans in your life!

September 2nd, 2009

One of the nice ladies at Build-a-Bear told her that a wolf was coming there soon. The lady said that they didn’t know what they were going to look like. About a week ago, Mom asked her mom if she would notice the new plushie at BAB, and it turned out to be the wolf! Yesterday, Mom adopted our newest friend, Timber. He looks like quite the ‘trendy’ dude in his picture! He is from the World Wildlife Foundation series of plushies. Mom has quite a few of them. We have Charlotte the giraffe, Zambia the zebra, Lennox the lion, Garnet the cheetah, Daisy the Bengal tiger, Edwin the leopard, and Eira the snow leopard. Mom will soon take a picture of all our World Wildlife Foundation buddies.

Mom bought me a new shirt when she went to BAB. It has a wolf on it. She also bought me a really cool backpack. It’s more of a shoulder bag. She says that she will take my picture wearing them and post it for another day.  One picture a day is enough, and I’m sure there will be a time that Mom wants to post but can’t think of anything to say.

Do you like to go outside? I do—I love gardening. Mom has been at school and work a lot lately, but on next Monday she has the day off from both her job and school for the holiday. We’re making plans to go out to the garden to pick vegetables. I wish I could help plant, but Mom says that I can’t get too dirty. Maybe next year I can help plant the different flowers that are in pots on the porch. Princess goes out to the garden to help plant. Mom says that she doesn’t help plant as much as supervise the planting. I’m not quite sure what that means, but maybe I can supervise the planting next year!

August 23rd, 2009

Last night, she went thrifting and came home with two new friends.  One of our new friends is Lotus. She is a Champs Build-a-Bear. If you made a Champs bear at Build-a-Bear, some money was donated to a children’s charity. Mom found her that dress in her supply of bear-sized clothes. It has ducks on it! Lotus says that she is glad to find a new home. She thinks that it is cool that she is going to be able to make so many new friends. Taft, one of our resident bears, says that he will watch over her until she gets settled. I usually wouldn’t introduce someone so brand new until they got settled, but I thought it wouldn’t be fair to introduce the next teddy without introducing Lotus first.
I now would like to introduce Briggs. I am introducing him here because I was wondering if any of you knew what kind of Build-a-Bear he was. He has the proper tag, but Mom has never seen him. A lot of my Build-a-Bear friends have species name—like how Lotus is a Champ bear. (I was bought at Steins, so I don’t have a species name.) But since Mom has never seen the kind of bear that Briggs is before, he doesn’t. She thought if I introduced him here that one of you guys might know. She does have a Build-a-Bear book that she can consult--- once she finds it! Briggs has quite easily fit in with our big boy bears. That’s what I call them. They’re almost twice my size! Most of the Build-a-Bear plushies can fit all the same clothes, but not these guys. Mom bought a little boy’s shirt just for Briggs so he’d have something to wear! If you notice, he’s pretty much too big around for that shirt even! I introduced Briggs to other big boy bears.
Roscoe is an American Eagle bear that Mom found at Goodwill a long time ago. He likes playing soccer. In fact, if anyone wants to play any kind of outdoor game, he is ready. We’ve played baseball outside for hours! Roscoe came to our family wearing a rugby shirt and holding a duffle bag. Mom gave him this soccer t-shirt because it fit him much better.Taft is a standing polar bear Build-a-Bear. (We also have Sullivan, who is a Build-a-Bear polar bear, but he stands on four feet.)  Mom thought that he was the biggest Build-a-Bear that they made! He’s almost as big as Briggs, but not quite. Mom thinks he’s probably taller then Briggs, but Briggs certainly has more heft! It’s an okay thing for a teddy bear to have. It’s much more to hug! But everyone’s special in their own way, so we’re all needed.
We wanted to write a long-ish entry because on Tuesday, Mom goes back to school. There is still plenty of time for hugs and attention, since we all can sit with her when she does her homework. There won’t be quite as much time to blogging time though, since she should be working on her homework when she is sitting on the computer. It’s actually part of our job as plushies to make sure she stays on task!

August 8th 2009

It’s been a stormy day today. There was a humdinger of a thunderstorm this morning, but by the afternoon it was nice and sunny. But after supper time, it was all gray and dreary again. Now it’s storming again. I don’t like thunderstorms. They don’t scare me as much as keep me awake. This morning, we all woke up despite the fact that we had more time to sleep.

Mom went shopping yesterday and bought me a new outfit from Build-a-Bear. It’s an aviator outfit. I will try it on and get my picture taken soon. It has a leather helmet and aviator glasses. The glasses aren’t quite as cool as the ones that our friend Nate came from Goodwill with. They’re still plenty cool. Mom might go back to Build-a-Bear and buy a t-shirt with an airplane on it.

I thought I would introduce another of our friends today. Shirley is a spring lamb from Build-a-Bear. Mom got her a couple of years ago from the Build-a-Bear store. Shirley is one of Fleur and Chloe’s friends. She like flowers and gardening. We went out to the garden once together, although she wasn’t able to get too dirty since she’s all white!

January 26th 2009

Today I am going to introduce my best friend, Robinson. Robinson is a floppy pony II from Build-a-bear. Mom bought him a long time ago, and he's been with our family nearly as long as I have. He was Mom's second Build-a-Bear. Robinson and I hang out a lot. We like talking about cars, books, and trees. Robinson really likes to know the names of the different kinds of trees we can see from our windows. He knows silver maple, apple, pine, and plum. He hopes that one day Mom will take him out somewhere with more kinds of trees!

Robinson has a cousin named Friday that I'll introduce on another post. He's only three years old, so Robinson spends some time each day trying to keep him out of trouble. Mom says that sometimes it's easier to keep out of trouble ourselves then keep Friday out of trouble and I agree! Friday really doesn't listen to reason, but Mom says that is because he is just a baby. I don't understand why that should be an excuse!

January 11, 2008

Mom has found a little bit of time to blog here today! I am becoming more and more fond of this Windows Live Writer thing. While I'm not sure I understand it all, it's still awfully cool. I always did like Mom's LiveJournal client. Everything was all in one place! Now I've got a program just like that!

Today I thought I would tell you about my sister, Chloe. She's the second bear to join our family. Mom bought her from Build-a-Bear, way back in 2006. She is a Curly Teddy II. I'm not quite sure what that means either, but Mom says it's important. Chloe is 3 years old, and likes to play with our siblings, who I will talk about later. I love my little sister, but I am glad that she has other plushies to play with. Sometimes she can be really loud and runs around. Mom says that she's got lots of energy and that is a good thing-- but I don't know about that!

Chloe likes all sorts of girly things. She likes unicorns, horses, and sparkly jewelry. She likes it when Mom buys her new clothes. She loves the bows that Mom puts on her ears. She wishes that they could be sparkly! Mom won't let her get her ears pierced until she's much older, so sparkly bows is as close and she's going to get!

She also likes having books read to her. Her favorite book is Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse, by Kevin Henkes. I admit that that book is one of my favorites too! We've read it so many times that Chloe can say almost all the Lilly parts all by herself-- even though she can't read very well yet!

Next time, I will tell you more about my best friend, Robinson. He's the next plushie that came into our family so he comes next!