R.I.P. Mr. Bear :-(

Last Saturday was a VERY VERY sad day for all us!!! We went to Ikea to get Brady's new "big boy" dresser and whatever else they had that we "had to have"!! LOL The trip started off just fine and we were finding some things that we thought would help make our lives a little more organized. We took a short break to have some lunch, then got Brady back into the shopping cart, made bathroom stops for all of us and went back on our way. Not long after that, Brady asked me for Mr. Bear and I remember handing it to him. Awhile later, when we were in the "self serve" aisles gathering our things and Brady says, "where's my bear" and I start looking in the shopping cart and in the diaper bag and in everything and anything I could, and to my horror I could not find Mr. Bear. So, Alan stayed with the flat bed of our stuff and Brady and I went and retraced our steps (if you've never been in an Ikea, they are HUGE!!!!) and I'm looking down on the floor and up on shelves and everywhere with no luck. We make our way back to Alan and then he retraces our steps but again comes up empty handed. So we go ahead and go to the registers and pay and decide that we'll take everything to the car and then walk through one last time. By this time it's after 1pm easily and the place is mobbed, so looking around for a 6-8 inch bear is not exactly easy. Again the 3 of us come up with nothing. Interestingly enough, as I'm talking to Brady and asking him if he remembers where we were when he dropped him he tells me this story.......(I kinda pieced everything he said together to come up with this, but it makes sense so I'm thinking this is what happened).....he says Mr. Bear fell through the hole by his leg and that someone was swinging Mr. Bear or waving him back and forth. So, what I'm thinking is that Mr. Bear fell out of the cart and some other kid picked him up and was playing with him or taunting him and Brady thought it was funny so he never said anything (which surprises me, but who knows). Then we moved on and he forgot about him. Now of course, this is all speculation, but it's possible. My other thought is that if another kid did pick him up, Mr. Bear could be ANYWHERE...there are so many cubbies, cabinets, containers and bins in Ikea that it could be virtually impossible to get him back.

Sunday morning I woke up hearing this through the monitor, "mommy, where's my bear?" OMG, it about broke my heart!!! We went back on Sunday to return a few things so we stopped in the lost and found but they didn't have him!! I started asking Brady if he'd like to pick out a new Mr. Bear and he said "yes" so we went to Babies R Us and he picked out another Mr. Bear, who's being called either New Mr. Bear or Mr. Bear and oddly enough he seems to like him better than the other back up we had, but perhaps that's because we called him Bob. ( I should also add that I recently found out these bears have been discontinued!!! Luckily the blue ones are much easier to come by than the pink ones. I know this because I've been looking for a pink ever since we got Emily's referral because I thought it would be cute for Brady and Emily to have the "same" bear. I lucked out again because one of my fellow blogettes from my Yahoo group was able to find a pink one for us!!! Thanks Amy!!!!)

All in all, I think Alan and I are FAR more upset by this whole thing than Brady is, so that's the silver lining. I'm still hoping that somehow Mr. Bear will turn up, but I am by no means holding my breath.

A few pictures of Mr. Bear:

Mr. Bear is on the left, Bob is on the right. You can tell by looking at him just how much Brady was attached to him!!! Brady was always rubbing his nose!!! I should note this is the last picture taken of Mr. Bear! :-(

Ironically Mr. Bear made it into our latest portrait session. Originally I didn't want him in the pictures but Brady was having a difficult time, so Mr. Bear came to the rescue!!! (these pictures were to remain "secret" until I sent them to the grand parents, but I thought this was a good reason to unveil one!!)

Mr. Bear ready for a flight to Tampa!

Okay, so this picture truly makes my heart break!!! Mr. Bear really was a "best friend" to Brady!!

Giving Mr. Bear some love

Mr Bear and Brady in Taiwan!!! :-)

Their first Christmas together!!! :-)