Where is Yellow Bear

Sadly, a day or so after I put up that last post, Yellow Bear went missing at a department store.  The whole family had gone to the mall to look for some new jeans for Daddy, and to get groceries (picture a mall like they have in North America, except it also includes grocery stores, pharmacies, post offices, etc.)  It wasn't until we were just about to leave, with a grocery cart full of food, that we realized that a member of our party was missing.

We started retracing our steps, stopping first in the clothing store where Spencer had tried on some jeans with the help of his little boys.  In spite of my stress I couldn't help but smile as the store clerk walked up and down the dressing room hall asking if any of the guys had a yellow teddy bear in their booth with them.  No luck.

I eventually realized that Eliot had dropped Yellow Bear in the last department store we visited.  There had been a table displaying all manner of fragile cups and serving platters.  Eliot was enthralled and tinkered with some of the merchandise, with both hands free.  My focus was on keeping anything from getting broken, and when Spencer and Peter caught up with us we left to go get our groceries. When I realized what must have happened I hurried back to that spot, but no Yellow Bear.  We left our information with the department store as well as the mall, but there hasn't been any sign of him yet.

Eliot is handling it pretty well, except that he asks about Yellow Bear frequently, especially at bedtime.  Part of me thought that perhaps it was time to let him move on from Yellow Bear and attach himself to something else.  The problem is that we've always had two Yellow Bears here.  One of them was the lesser-loved Fuzzy Yellow Bear.  Peter adopted Fuzzy Yellow Bear many months ago.  He is definitely Peter's bear.  These past few days Eliot has been "borrowing" Fuzzy Yellow Bear.  If Peter sets him down, Eliot will say "I'm going to borrow Fuzzy Lellow Bear."  Then he'll take Fuzzy Yellow Bear and hug and cuddle him.  He'll stand up and walk around the room with him, bouncing him in his arms and saying "shush, shush, shush."  When Peter starts to fuss about wanting Fuzzy Yellow Bear back, Eliot will bring him to Peter and pass him over gently the way adults would hand over an infant.  It seems pretty clear that Eliot's not ready to move on from having a yellow bear, and I'm not going to make him do it.

My mother is going to pay us a visit at the end of October and I've asked her to bring a yellow bear with her.  Yellow Bear who was lost is actually Yellow Bear II.  Yellow Bear I was left in Milwaukee.  He needs to have his chin patched up, but otherwise he's in pretty good shape.  Eliot is looking forward to having Yellow Bear I back.  He likes to look at a picture that was taken of him and the bears back in Milwaukee.  It brings some measure of comfort.