Teddy Bear William

Check out Teddy Bear William!

I've realized that many of the activities for parents and babies and/or small children that I used to think were kind of silly aren't really for the children. They're excuses for the parents to get together and receive some much-needed interaction with other adults, while providing at least a nominal bit of entertainment for the kiddies.

Take an activity that many libraries host each year, the Teddy Bear Picnic. Ostensibly, it's a teddy-bear themed story hour with a few extra perks thrown in. It's a picnic where the kids bring their teddy bears from home, and they listen to stories about teddy bears and sing songs about teddy bears and make teddy bear puppets or art collages and eat teddy bear snacks (Teddy Grahams anyone?). It's the sort of thing that would make the pre-baby Jennifer roll her eyes a bit. I can remember myself thinking that I probably wouldn't be the type of mom to do that sort of thing. It sounded sort of silly. The sort of thing that stay-at-home moms do. The sort of thing that people with minivans and scrapbooks do. The sort of thing that people who never read books or newspapers or have coherent thoughts on world events do.

However, Jennifer the Mom loves this sort of thing now. I may not drive a minivan or have a full-to-bursting scrapbook, but I don't roll my eyes anymore. Why? It's a good excuse to get out of the house. It breaks up the day. It gives William the chance to see other people and watch the other babies playing, which he really enjoys. He gets to hear stories and songs, and I don't have to be the one providing the entertainment. I get to talk to other adults. And I get to eat Teddy Grahams if I want to. And it gives William and me the chance to have a little bit of new fun together.

Maybe I'll never love that sort of thing as much as I love hearing an author speak at a local bookstore, but I've learned to not discount chances to interact with other people who are going through the same things that I have...or have had similar experiences in the past and can understand my current stage of life. Those parents are not rote stereotypes, just like I'm not. If I'm at the Teddy Bears Picnic, and I read the newspaper every day and go hear John Dean speak at a local bookstore and have an opinion on the recent declassification of Pluto as a planet, well, doesn't it follow that the other people might have more in common with me than I might have originally thought? Maybe. I don't know yet. But I do know that sometimes, when your baby has kept you awake all night long because he's not feeling well, you don't need to discuss the Pope's recent controversial remarks about Islam. All you really need is another adult to smile and ask you, "How's it going?"

So I've learned that you can have different kinds of fun IF you have an open mind about it. If you go into an occasion, dead set that you're going to be miserable, well, you probably will be. But if you're willing to be surprised, well, you might just enjoy yourself. That's been a big lesson for me.

And I've learned that William and I really do have fun together when we do stuff like the Teddy Bears Picnic. And right now, that's good enough for me. Plus, could he be any cuter in his little teddy bear ears?