James' Multipersonality Friend

In the last blog, we made mention of James' dear and faithful friend Teddy. Now isn't that an original name for a teddy bear? Well, there's a story to how Teddy got his name. Way back in the fall, James began to covet Rebecca's stuffed puppy named Spot. (can you guess...it has spots!). This immediatley became a bone of contention between the two siblings, so we encouraged James pick a friend from his own collection. (That's one perk of the many tests and hospital stays that James has had: he usually comes home with a toy of some sort). Why he picked the black bull we are not sure, but it may be because it's a hand puppet, and so was very entertaining. Regardless, James took fondly to the bull; he took him to bed and where ever he went, and all that typical stuff kids do with their feather brained soul mates. Since it became evident that this bull was a keeper, we thought of calling it Ferdinand, from the Ferdinand the Bull story, but we realized this was an impossible name for James to say, so we ended up calling him Freddy. On the chest of Freddy was some words sown in, which we never paid attention to. However, near the end of December (Christmas morning to be exact), while playing with Freddy, Steph discovered that there was writing on the inside of Freddy, and, by cracky, it wasn't mirrored writing you'd expect from the sewing, but it said the exact same thing as on the front. Almost time to call in Sherlocke Holmes, but not yet. While progressively rolling Freddy inside out, we discovered a stubby snout, then some eyes, and then, tada! there was Teddy! What a strange surprise!

Then we recalled that Freddy originally had had a tag on him, (note the pluperfect tense: had had, meaning that the tag had long since been ripped off). This tag explained how the stock market has bull days, and bear days. Don't we all have bear days once in while? [Sometimes I wake up grouchy......but other times I let her sleep :)] But anyone who has met a bull knows that they are not really jolly animals, so what's the connection? The terminology simply reflects how the two animals attack. A bull puts his head down, charges, and throws his opponent in the air when the two collide. So a bull day is when the market goes up. On the other hand, a bear will rise on its hind legs, claw his opponent down, and stuff him in the dirt. So if the markets go down, it's a bear day. And that makes investors grouchy! Back to James

Although James was as surprised to see his metamorphosised friend as us, he much preferred to chum around with Freddy. It was fun to play peek-a-boo, and suddenly the bear would appear. The bear eventually gained acceptance, and so since he wasn't really Freddy, he became.....you guessed it, Teddy! It is funny how close love and hate are. Now James gets mad if we try to give him Freddy. And if we thought he was attached to Freddy, he is much more attached to Teddy. We wonder how real Teddy is for James, since he like to talk to him, "feed" him, "give" him drink, go with him on his fire truck. One way to describe the two now is 'inseperable'.

Fun with Teddy









Freddy becomes Teddy: