Eek! A Bear!

[marydell]

Tonight Charlie (age almost 11 months) just noticed that there is a bear in his room. He spent some of the evening staring at it with mute apprehension.  I put it on the floor and sat him down near it for a while so he could look, and while he's not flipping out like he did with the dog, he's definitely not trusting Mr. Panda. (Mr. Panda will get a proper Panda name when Charlie is old enough to help pick one; for now he is either Mr. Panda or "Wolong.") Despite, ya know, having shared a room with him for basically his entire life.


(Charlie age 6 months or thereabouts, unaware that he is leaning on a predator graminivore.)

The bear has been moved from the top of the toy chest to the floor next to the chest, to make him seem less imposing, and to give Charlie a chance to encounter him at floor level when he's crawling around, or steer clear, as he chooses.  Of course, to me the bear is a toy, but to Charlie, he's as real as Shortie, which is the whole point of having a teddy bear friend when you're little.  So I want to encourage his viewing the bear as a complex being rather than a piece of furniture; even if its personality is really just an extension of himself.  But I also don't want him to feel afraid when he's in his own room, so if he doesn't make friends with it in a day or two, I'll have to relocate Mr. Panda to the living room for a while. He can be scared of him there if he wants :)

Fortunately, once I put him in his crib, he stopped noticing the bear and went right to sleep without any tragic looks, so I think they'll be ok in there together for the night.

Ah, infant development.

Comments

[princessofg.livejournal.com]

so cool that he's NOTICED OMG.

[ashnistrike.livejournal.com]

Is he crawling around now?

[marydell.livejournal.com]

He is crawling! He does the army crawl on his elbows and scootches around the floor. He's just started it in the past week or so.

[ashnistrike.livejournal.com]

Aw, how cute! And welcome to the world of non-sessile offspring! We saw Bobby last week, and he is so excited by being mobile that he cries whenever he's not allowed to speed-crawl. Unfortunately, we were seeing him at an academic conference, so this was not always practical.

[marydell.livejournal.com]

Hooray for Bobby speed-crawling! They are fun when they're mobile, although more trouble, of course. I'm putting together a couple of baby paddocks in the study/library. I'm glad he gets to crawl around a giant babyproof room at day care all day, since our house is necessarily a little more restrictive. I'm still figuring out what I need to buy to get everything properly locked down without making it impossible for me to open a drawer when I need to.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

I still get weirded out randomly, so I feel for Charlie, but oh, my word, I am overwhelmed by the adorability of this story. And that picture.

[marydell.livejournal.com]

I remember being 9 and thinking, from my bed in the dark, that a pile of clothes on my chair looked like a jaguar, and couldn't sleep until I rearranged it extensively. So I anticipate years of weirdness to come!

He is a cute little schnookums, isn't he?

[readinggeek451]

When I was about three, I decided that the shadow at the foot of my older brother's bed at night was a bear curled up, and I was scared of it. Not to the point of mentioning it to anyone, I don't think, just cautious and needing to keep an eye on it.

[gailmom.livejournal.com]

ah, childhood imagination....I saw dragons and demons and things that go bump in the night pretty much until my brains starting misfiring and I starting seeing them move in daylight instead of at night, weee!!

On the other hand, I'm a poet and writer and crafter, so that may not be a bad thing. ;)

Yay for another stage of mental development, my sympathy for poor bear who may get banished soon, and good goddess your baby is just the smiling-est little dude ever.

*goes back up to oggle cute baby pic some more*

[marydell.livejournal.com]

My imagination still runs away with me, too - particularly when the lights are out, I have to make sure I've identified anything confusing in the room before I lie down! Which is why the dolls live in the study, because when it's dark they are scary. But I think imagination is usually a good thing, even when it needs some extra management.

This morning he was smiling at the bear and wanted to pet him, but when he got home from day care he was kind of scared of him again. We'll see what tomorrow brings! Babies are interesting critters, aren't they?

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

I thought pandas, being entirely vegetarian (indeed graminivorous), were not predators. Also, they're extremely cute. You've got a massively cute photo there!

[marydell.livejournal.com]

Right you are...silly me, I actually knew that but forgot. Fixed.

Cute overload, definitely. I'm trying to get a video of Charlie petting the bear, since he's progressed to that stage.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

That's beyond terminal cuteness.