The Build A Bear Kerfuffle

Emily at Build A Bear a few years ago

We are a family who loves stuffed animals. I was never a doll person as a kid but I loved my stuffies. I still even have my Pooh Bear from when I was a kid. Emily and Todd both share this love, so we have made many, many trips to Build A Bear Workshop over the years.

I was vaguely interested in the "Pay Your Age" promotion they had going on. It wasn't something I was able to do though because Emily is still in Michigan with her grandparents. I didn't have to work yesterday and I wasn't feeling great, so I watched the whole thing unfold on the internet.

After promoting the hell of it on social media, I'm not sure why Build A Bear wasn't prepared for the onslaught of people. Especially because parents love a great deal since kids and their toys are expensive.

I'm a reader of comments when something like this explodes and it was interesting to read them yesterday. People were pissed, and that's putting it mildly. The amount of people who felt Build A Bear owed them something was astounding. And the people who waited in line for hours, the longest time I saw was eight hours, was crazy.

In the end, Build A Bear closed their stores because of safety concerns and then they sent everyone in the club (including me) a coupon for $15 off. I thought that was pretty awesome because now Emily can go and get a new bear once she gets home. And since she's 9, it will probably be close to the "Pay Your Age" price.

I learned that is is better to sit on the sidelines and watch than battle the crowds. And in this case, everyone wins because the $15 off is quite generous since some of the bears are less than $15.

Did any of you go to Build A Bear yesterday? Tell your story in the comments!

The Comfort of Stuffed Animals

I'm an adult, and most days I can adult ok. I'm a mom and a wife, I have a job and my house isn't a complete disaster. But I do have rough days thanks to having chronic pain. Especially on those rough days, I like snuggling stuffed animals.

When I was a kid, I always preferred stuffed animals to dolls. My favorite was my Pooh Bear that I got when I was only one. He's been snuggled and loved so much that he's nearly flat now. But I still have him and he's still my bear. He's not great for snuggling alone though since he's so flat.

Emily got the stuffed animal loving gene from me and has a lot of stuffies. When I was in the hospital many years ago, she gave me a teddy bear that was named Chronic Pain Bear. After Todd got diagnosed with MS, Chronic Pain Bear became his.

Last year, Emily and Todd got me a pink cat Build-A-Bear named Princess Leia. And then after Dragon Con, I finally bought the Captain America Build-A-Bear that I had been wanting. I named him Steve.

Steve is a comfort to me when my pain levels are bad or when the depression and anxiety kick in. It may not seem very adult to sleep with a stuffed animal, but for me it is. Coping however you can is extremely adult.

Why I Am Pro-Toy

Yesterday, a friend of mine posted a link of a blog post about a mom who took away all of her kids toys because her kids were always asking for new toys. So she took away all of their toys and even took away the comforter off of their beds. My friend had a posed a question, was this abusive? You can read the whole article here but while it's not abusive, I think it's mean.

Emily does have a lot of toys. Probably more toys than she needs, but for the most part she plays with most of them on a regular basis. We do purges of toys every once in a while, mostly at this point the toys that she's too big for get sold.

We have always treated Emily as her own person, and her toys are hers. Most she got from us or as gifts, but some she has used her own money to buy. They are her things and she would honestly have to do something really bad to have them all taken away.

Usually when she does do something that is punishment worthy, we take away screen time. No TV, no iPad, that sort of thing. At that point, I want her to have access to her toys so she can play. It's still a punishment but it also doesn't leave her with absolutely nothing to do.

Besides, it's not really nice to have my own toys and deny her own. We have a stuffed animal addiction throughout our family. Emily has a ton, in part because she has gotten several that were mine and Todd's when we were kids. Todd and I also have our own stuffed animals even now that we sleep and cuddle with.

When Emily's room became overfilled with stuffed animals, we made her a deal. If she wanted to get a new one, she had to pick three or four old ones to give up. This way we were all happy.

Toys are fun and a part of childhood. Emily uses her imagination to make up stories with her toys. For that reason, even though my house is full of toys, I will always be for toys.

Stuffed Animals & Adults

The above tweet was one of many that I tweeted and retweeted last night in the wake of Robin William' passing. I had just put Emily to bed when I found out and Todd was at work. I snuggled into bed with my stuffed puppy though for something to hug.

I'm sure many people think stuffed animals are just for kids. I loved them when I was young and my Pooh was so loved that he is flat now. Even though college and beyond, I always liked sleeping with a stuffed animal. I liked hugging something that didn't wiggle like a person did.

Several years ago, Emily gave me one of her bears and he was dubbed Chronic Pain Bear. When Todd went into the hospital and was diagnosed with MS earlier this year, we gave Chronic Pain Bear to him. Emily gave me a new stuffed animal who was renamed Chronic Pain Puppy.

We all sleep with our respective stuffed animals. Emily's favorites change. Right now her favorite is a tiger that she named White Ninja. But it was a comfort to me to have Chronic Pain Puppy to snuggle while I was grieving

Being Different Is A Good Thing – A Children’s Book

Image: http://furry-feline.com/

As a geek, I have always known that I’m a little different from many folks out there. My daughter, who is five, has already expressed interest in geeky things at a young age. So the children’s book, Being Different Is A Good Thing, which features Furry Feline characters, has been great in helping her know there is nothing wrong with being different.

The Furry Feline characters are a line of plush animals, but this new children’s book brings these characters to life. Being Different Is A Good Thing tells the story of Chef Tako, who is an octopus. He becomes concerned because all of his friends have tails and he doesn’t. He does finally realize that being different is a good thing, by embracing the things that are good about him and not worrying that he doesn’t have a tail.

This was a really sweet story with cute characters. My daughter really enjoyed it. I’d recommend Being Different Is A Good Thing to any parent of young kids to help bring the point across that being different is just fine.

Note: I received a copy of this book for review purposes.