Jacob's Teddy

I have been having fun taking pictures of Ephraim each month with brown bear to show how much he has grown. It is amazing to me that he has changed so much in such a short amount of time. I found myself thinking recently that it was too bad I didn't think to do the same thing with Jacob when he was little. Then I remembered Teddy...

A year and a half ago for Christmas my coworker, Claudine, gave Jacob a teddy bear. She is a sweet older lady who doesn't have a lot of money and I was touched by the gesture.

The teddy that she gave Jacob was unique in many ways. When you think of a teddy bear, you probably think of something cute, cuddly and brown. This teddy is powder blue with long arms and legs and a little bow sewn below his chin. I had no idea when she gave us "Teddy" that he would become Jacob's best friend. As I thought about Teddy I realized that I have quite a few photos of Jacob with Teddy and they could basically do the same thing as the brown bear photos and show how much he's grown.

So here are the first couple of photos that I have with Jacob and Teddy. The photo on the left was taken in January 2007, so Jacob was 8 months old. The one of the right was a month later. Jacob and Teddy often seemed to "wrestle" in his bed, which you will see from some of the later photos.











The next picture is one of the best pictures I have of Jacob and Teddy. This was taken in March 2007 when Jacob was ten months old. Look how soft and fluffy Teddy looks and notice that he still has the blue bow at his chin.


Teddy traveled with us wherever we went. He has been to 5 states in the past year and a half. Here is a picture of Jacob and Teddy in the car when Jacob was 11 months old.


Here is another picture of Jacob and Teddy in the car. This was taken in August 2007, so Jacob is 15 months old. It is amazing to me how much older he looks just four months later than the last picture. Notice that Jacob no longer has his binky from now on.


We even took Teddy with us to get Jacob's pictures taken in October 2007, when he was 17 months old. I love this picture because it shows just how much Jacob loves Teddy.

Luckily Jacob does not drag Teddy around the house very often. We have convinced Jacob that Teddy belongs in his bed. This way we don't have to go searching for him at nap time. Here are two more pictures of Teddy from this year. The one on the left is from February 2008 and the one on the right is from April 2008, right before Jacob turned two (you can't see Teddy that well, but he's there.












Teddy has been through a lot. He has been thoroughly squeezed, petted with grubby fingers, dragged around, vomited on, and washed many, many times. His stuffing has compacted and he can no longer hold his head up. Somewhere along the way he lost that little blue bow. He looks much skinnier and worn than he did a year ago, but there is a lot of love in that little blue bear.

Jacob has grown a lot in the past two years. Sometimes I look at him and wonder where my baby went. He is such a wonderful little boy. He is so smart and sweet. We are so lucky to have him as part of our family. Here is a picture of my two-year-old with his best friend.


I foolishly tried to replace Teddy with a bear that I thought looked more "acceptable" when Ephraim was born. We had Ephraim "give" Jacob an adorable brown teddy bear as a gift when Jonah came to the hospital. But nothing could replace Teddy.

Now instead of one bear, Jacob sleeps with Teddy and Brown Bear. You might have noticed that in the last brown bear photos of Ephraim the bear was a slightly different color. That is because Jacob decided that he didn't want to share brown bear with Ephraim. So I went and got Ephraim his own bear. But there is still no question as to which bear Jacob loves most. It's definitely Teddy.