Episode 51: Friend!

Every once in a while someone special comes along and it just changes your life forever. Things are never quite the same and you can't picture living another day without that someone, let alone remember how you managed to even get out of bed before that someone came along. For the baby, that someone was 'born' yesterday, and his name is Felix.

Born from a bin of spinning stuffing and provided with his own tiny heart, the 17 inch, 11 ounce monkey was the shining light in a fun filled birthday celebration, and he has not left Av's side since. After a party that netted mountains of toys, clothing and attention, we decided that it would be best to plan a fun family day for her actual birthday yesterday, and scheduled trips to, among other places, the animal shelter and Friendly's.

Also on the agenda was a trip to every kid's favorite friend farm, Build a Bear. I had never been to Build a Bear before and, frankly, the concept always seemed like something I would not be in to, but it is funny how having kids forces you to be 'in to' certain things. I am sure many of you have had the Build a Bear experience before, so I won't describe it it too much detail. Lets just say the 'build' portion of the process is no joke.

We entered the store to find it bustling with kids on school vacation week and we were very quickly greeted by a bubbly middle aged woman who reminded me of an older version of Flo from the Progressive Insurance ads. She explained to us the process and sent us on our way to pick out our 'skin.' Of course, Build a Bear does not offer exclusively bear skin, you can choose from a wide variety of animals including lobsters, dogs, rabbits and I even saw one girl with a wolf. We carried the baby over to the selection area an decided the monkey got the biggest smile out of her, so we reached in and grabbed Felix's sagging, empty skin and brought it over to the next station. What followed was a series of tasks that included inserting a heart in to the skin, watching Felix get stuffed and then 'washing' him in the special washing area, which was really nothing more than air that is blown out of something that resembles a faucet. Now, I am told there is also an area where you are supposed to sing happy birthday to the bear, but luckily for us, no one was manning that station yesterday, so we got to skip it.

Next, you take your new friend to the 'dressing room' where you can proceed to increase the cost of your Build a Bear with ridiculous and hysterical outfits. For example, the girl with the wolf dressed him in a leather jacket. Awesome. Felix, being a monkey, was obviously open to any outfit, but given that we had a 1-year-old who had no idea what was really happening, I decided that the most appropriate (and inexpensive) piece of clothing would be a pair of tighty whities. Just like at the zoo. Although, I will say if they had a bell hop outfit I probably would have sprung for that. Ha. Monkeys carrying bags. Priceless.

Once we slid his briefs on it was time to name the monkey (Felix was my choice) and fill out his 'birth certificate,' the final step before the little guy 'comes to life.' It was at this point that Monica took the baby off to play in the store and I had the pleasure of waiting in an eight person deep line to pay for the scantily clad little guy. This, of course, meant that I had to hear the bubbly cashier lady give the same Build a Bear speech eight times.

'Ok, now what is our name here? Oooh that is a cute name. Ok now I'll put his birth certificate in his new home here...' you get the idea.

The one thing with Build a Bear that struck me as odd is that these people are so deep in the 'dealing with kids' mode that they don't really change their tone or attitude when they are dealing with adults. I would say the lady spoke to me pretty much the exact same way she would speak to a 9-year-old, and refused to cut down the speech even though I made it pretty clear that I just wanted her to ring the damn thing up. I actually got quite a bit of amusement out of the whole process.

So we left, on to the next adventure with a freshly stuffed monkey in a cardboard box. I was pretty surprised with how smooth the whole thing was and how much less irritating it was than I had expected. I figured that Felix would come home, get some attention now and then and end up in the toy bin next to all of the other toys she is sick of. Not so much.

Felix got to come out of his house while we were on a mall bench bundling her up to leave and the couple has been virtually inseparable ever since. He sat next to her at lunch and cuddled with her on the car ride home. Once we got home, she dragged him around and kept him with her everywhere she went. By the end of the day she had fallen asleep from birthday exhaustion, holding hands with Felix while watching Baby Einstein on the couch.

One of our goals as parents was to avoid getting Av hooked on things like binkies and blankies, and we have been pretty successful thus far, as she doesn't have either. Unfortunately, I think Felix may be the thing to take their place. I can just picture myself running out to Build a Bear like three years from now to build a new Felix before she realizes he has been lost or thrown away due to filth.

So the baby was happy with the Build a Bear trip and I have to say I was, too. Just a few observations. First, it was much cheaper than I had thought. One monkey in his underwear was only $23. Also, I was impressed with how efficiently they had set up the machinery. I mean, it makes sense as it is such a successful endeavor, but it was still impressive.
One thing I will never understand, however, is how any man can walk in to that place alone and build a bear for his girlfriend. Now, admittedly Monica is not a teddy bear and chocolate kind of girl so I don't have much experience with cheesy romantic gifts, but it just seems like it would be awkward to have to go in there and do that by yourself. But, hey, I am sure that move has gotten plenty of high school and college kids a little action on Valentines Day, so why knock it. You gotta do what you gotta do, right?