Care Bears

So a few years ago (you know back before I had kids and really understand the impact an on-the-whim-purchase could have on how the household operates...) I bought a Lucky Care Bear and for six years one Care Bear was all our house needed.  This past winter one of the girls picked up a Care Bear show from the library and suddenly both of them loved all things Care Bear and the Lucky Care Bear that had been casually played with but never really a favorite was the center of attention (as well as a number of fights...).  Lucky could now be seen everywhere - he took a car trip with us that started with Liberty getting car sick all over him.  He's been to the library, commissary, craft place and a few other places. The only reason he hasn't been to church yet was because I asked the girls if he could guard the car while we were inside.  Of all their stuffed animals he was the one who was baptized when Emmuska recreated the River Jordan in our backyard:

He was a huge part of our lives - and like I said the center of quite a few arguments.  One such fight occurred one evening right before bed and in a desperate attempt to end the fight quickly so we could get on with the going to bed process I told Emmuska that if she just let Liberty have the Care Bear I would let her pick out her own Care Bear and get it for her.  She happily agreed to this arrangement and handed over Lucky. 

Being Emmuska she very naturally had a specific Care Bear she wanted - a pink Cheer Bear she had frequently played with at a friends house.  Any attempts to talk about other possibilities ended with her mind still determined to own the Cheer Bear of her dreams so after a couple of weeks we looked on eBay, found the Care Bear of her choice and purchased it.  Thankfully she understood that things purchased on the computer come in to the mail box and she checked it faithfully until the big day when it arrived:

The excitement was palpable. Would it be all she hoped for?

Cheer Bear! Exactly as imagined - complete with a rainbow ribbon in her hair (trust me this was a huge selling point).

The beginning of a beautiful friendship.

The day of Cheer Bear's arrival saw a foster Care Bear in our home (Liberty and her friend had come to a Care Bear swap arrangement where the Lucky bear stayed at her friend's house for a few days while Liberty took home the purple Care Bear. A week or two later they were switched back and have stayed in their respective homes since. Yes a few more tears were involved than either mothers were expecting.) Here purple Care Bear and Cheer Bear give each other a 'Welcome to your new home' hug.

Since then Cheer Bear has been in just about as many places as Lucky Bear was dragged to. Cheer Bear has picked out library books and movies, gone grocery shopping and helped with craft projects.

And since she had an input on what we put in the refrigerator she obviously felt comfortable helping herself to a snack. (This is why I try to keep my camera near the kitchen - it's the center of the house and you never know when you are going to need it...)

So our family settled into the bliss of being the home to two Care Bears - one for each girl.  And while there were no fights over who got which Care Bear there were quite a few nights spent looking for one or the other (or both) so we all could get some good sleep.

One Saturday morning a few months into our new Care Bear living situation Liberty came up to me and told me that she would give Samuel her green Care Bear so that she could have a purple Care Bear (who needs to mess around with fancy names when their all different colors? Two year olds have the world so figured out. ;) I couldn't resist her winning smile and her logic was so sound - Emmuska had gotten a Care Bear in her favorite color just by giving Liberty the one that was in the house. What if she, Liberty did the same? Surely if she surrendered the Lucky Bear to Samuel she would get to pick out her own Care Bear! I was pretty impressed by the quality of her deductive reasoning on this one so headed over to eBay to see what we could find. Shortly into our search (naturally Liberty had to be there for the whole process) we found the purple Care Bear of her dreams (basically to qualify as the Care Bear of her dreams it had to be purple but we'll just stick to I'm pretty good at fulfilling her dreams. ;)

And after checking the mailbox daily for about a week and a half Liberty finally got the Care Bear she'd been waiting for.

Its name is Share Bear but around here it's Purple Care Bear or occasionally Libster's Care Bear. I'll say it again two year olds should be in charge of naming things - it'd be easier for just about everybody and most men would not only approve of the no nonsense approach but actually remember the names of their children's toys. ;)

Anyhow the flow of Care Bears didn't stop with Liberty's Share Bear. Since it was only a dollar more to get two when I got Liberty's rather than just getting the one I picked one up for Samuel as well:

It's Grumpy Bear - because I have a soft spot in my heart for him. (I'll save you from my Care Bear psychology for today.) I took the above shot just a second too late - he had fallen asleep holding it close but moved right before I hit the shutter release button.

Elizabeth and Corey found three jumbo Care Bears and brought them out to Tennessee (funny story about those - last night Liberty didn't want to go to sleep so started playing a board game with one of the big Care Bears - they're perfect for filling for that kind of stuff) so our Care Bear family continues to grow and I very much doubt that will stop any time soon.