Mom Moment Monday

Every Friday is "show and tell" and E's school. She literally asks all week if it is "show and tell' and then spends endless amounts of time choosing the right toy to take. We're working on days of the week and what we do each day. Right now, Monday-Friday is school. Saturday = dance and Sunday = church. Once she starts up swim again, that will just complicate things.

But, I digress.

So, all week, she wanted to take these two pink bears (one normal sized, one tiny) that we named Mitzy and Bitzy. Then, this morning she dug out this bear from the bottom of her closet and changed her mind.

When she drug him in our room declaring she was taking this bear instead my heart skipped a beat. No! is what I wanted to scream and demand that he was a home toy that we are very, very careful with. See, this bear is...was mine. I've had him pretty much my whole life. He came from my great-grandma that passed away when I was about 2. She didn't like anybody, but she loved me. And because of it, I always loved this bear. I once left him in a hotel room while traveling for a dance competition. I was in high school mind you and was in tears when I discovered he was missing. Thankfully the cleaning lady at our hotel found him and they gladly shipped him home. I've not made the mistake of letting him leave the house again.

His name is bear. He has a battle wound that my dog, Snickers, gave him in high school. Yes, I slept with a teddy bear in high school. I also slept with a monkey that the hubs gave me until we got married. Now, occasionally I'll sleep with my kiddos tiger. Hello, my name is Crystal and I LOVE sleeping with stuffed animals. And no, I'm no ashamed.

While I was explaining to E that if she HAD TO take him, she had to be really careful and not share him with her friends. Yes, I went there. She declared that she wanted to name HER. Now hold the train! Bear is a boy, not a girl, and bear already has a name. We went round and round about this. Again, yes, I argued with my (almost) 4 year old about the gender and name of a bear. Yes.

At some point she said to me, "Mommy, the bear used to be yours when you were a BABY, but you gave it to me and I want it to be a girl and name it." Alright my tiny lawyer.... she has the negotiation skills of a corporate lawyer.

In the end, she gave up the fight because I stopped engaging in it. I was getting upset and knew that it was kind of a ridicules fight to begin with. E took Bear to school and was over the moon to take mommy's bear to show her friends. She promised that he wouldn't get ripped, because then we'd have to throw him away. (that would never happen. I'd stitch him back up, obviously)

Yup, this little negotiating, bear stealing freak is so proud of herself!