* * *

a couple weeks ago we went to a birthday party at build-a-bear. em had been there once a couple years ago, but this was the first time she got it. they go through a whole process of selecting their bear, putting in his heart, stuffing, fluffing and dressing him. awesome mom that i am, i kept trying to talk her out of putting the bear – which she named Chocolate – in the soccer uniform, trying desperately to steer her toward the bear-chef outfit, the fairy-bear or the bear-ballerina outfits (so much more photogenic!)…but it had to be soccer. she had a blast, and that bear’s getting major love (so’s his soccer uniform. every few days she tells Chocolate to go to bed a little early because he has a “soccer game tomorrow”).

there’s a winter break from school coming up, and we have big plans to go back and make an exact (stuffed) replica of Bo Obama, our favorite white house pup. i love the scale of build-a-bear; watching the kids walk out with their giant boxes at the end of the adventure, feeling like they were totally in creative control. it’s close to times square and i’m afraid of tourists, or else i suspect we’d be there much more often.