Andrew is just wonderful. The two of us played “bears” for a half hour tonight. And nearly every word that came out of him made me wish that I was taping him…he’s just so beautifully cute.
Our game stated as he got out of the tub. He pulled his green froggy robe around himself, looked up at me, and said, “Mommy, let’s go snuggle and do toaster on the bed and talk about the ways I love you.” Toaster is when we warm him up by hugging him in our winter coats or under the covers.
While we “did toaster,” we shared observations about how much we love each other. For a literary comparison, it’s kind of like Quick as a Cricket meets Guess How Much I Love You. For example, Andrew said,
“I love you as many stripes as a zebra has. I love you as high as a giraffe can reach. I love you as hot as Africa. I love you big as a hippo can open his mouth. I love you as many wildebeests that there are on the savanna. I love you as much as a lion’s mane.”
I replied in kind, and we shared our “I love yous” until we’d exhausted (at least temporarily) our creativity.
Later Andrew requested that we play bears. I’d be the mommy bear and he’d be the little baby bear. I’d still need to protect him from predators, but he could hunt for himself. First he went hunting for a moose. He had to be very careful of the sharp antlers and hooves. He was so delighted that he was able to take down a great big moose all by himself. We devoured it together, spitting out antlers, bones, and fur. For the next half hour, Andrew-bear successfully hunted a manatee, a lion, an octopus (we liked slurping down the tentacles but had to spit out the ink), a (!) blue whale (we called all the other bears to join in), a daddy humpback whale, and an antelope. We also found lots of delicious berries, but we had to watch out for skunks on our berry-forays.
After each meal, we’d crawl back to our den where winter would be coming on and we’d hibernate under the covers together until the smell of berries or the flutter of butterfly wings would wake us up. Baby bear would giggle and kiss Mommy bear’s nose to rouse her from her slumber. Then we’d groom each other, pulling the burs out of our thick fur. Andrew-bear decided that he was almost grown, but he wanted to stay with his mommy bear for protection and warmth in the winter. We were very cozy bears during those short winter hibernations.
I feel so lucky to have this sweet boy in my life.
