stuffing

I have never had a child who has loved stuffed animals. Or even liked for that matter. No one would even give them a second glance. Until Liam.

He has become quite obsessed with them and finally received his beloved pillow pet dog for Christmas. Then came a little beanie baby kitty and then a dog star pet thingy. I then made the mistake of mentioning the mecca of all things stuffed animal related. Build a Bear Workshop.

It was probably one of the stupidest things I have ever done. I heard about how he wanted to go to Build a Bear about 1000 times a day.

So for Valentine's day we gave him a gift card to take a special trip to build his very own friend. When he opened the card he hugged it and said "This is SO cool!" over and over.

Geez...if opening the card was this awesome, I couldn't wait for the acutal day to come. Luckily, it was just the next morning and holy cow--10 a.m. could not come fast enough. I had high hopes that this would rock Liam's world. I am not going to lie...it totally did.

He was the only one there so he had extra special attention from the cute employee there. She was adorable and Liam grinned from ear to ear the whole time.

I think seeing all of the stuffed animals all flat and looking more like a skinned animal than a huggable friend made him a little nervous. Once he got over it though, he picked out his buddy. His name is Tootsie. Which is also the name of his pillow pet.

Putting in the heart and making a wish...

...helping put in the stuffing so it was just right...

...and giving his new friend a bath. He took this very seriously.

Voila! His very manly Tootsie bear who plays football. He called everyone he knew to let them know about his new friend.

As we left the store he told me that he thought it was real. I love his little imagination and had so much fun being a part of his little world for a morning.

It was SO cool.