Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Jonah's Battlefield Teddy


This past summer, when I was in the first trimester of pregnancy, Scott and I had an opportunity to take a couple weeks off to visit the East Coast. We saw friends in Washington, D.C., and some more in Long Island, New York. It was a great time for us, especially considering it was our last big trip together before toting along carseats, strollers, and pack-and-plays.

We spent months beforehand plotting our itinerary, as we had many things that we wanted to do and see. In addition to D.C. and The Big Apple, we wanted to visit Scott’s mom’s old stomping grounds of Philadelphia, PA. We figured that, instead of flying from one destination to another, we’d drive and see more of the countryside—after all, we may never get to that part of the country again so we’d better take advantage of it. Scott was absolutely delighted to find that it was just a short side trip to drive through Gettysburg, PA.

When the time came for the big trip and we entered the countryside of Pennsylvania, I’ll admit that Scott was much more excited than I about visiting the historical battlefield site, though I kept myself content with the beauty of the scenery and the novelty of the horse-drawn Amish carriages that we shared the highway with. Upon arriving to our destination, I was met with a pleasant surprise: Gettysburg is not only the home of the decisive Civil War battle, but it is also the home of Boyd’s Bears, the self-proclaimed “World’s Most Humongous Teddy Bear Store.”

It took a little convincing that our souvenir from Gettysburg should be a teddy bear for our new baby and not an “authentic battlefield bullet,” but Scott was a real trooper about searching for “the perfect bear.” We were somewhat intimidated upon entering the 3 story barn filled with more teddy bears than you could imagine, but our intimidation was immediately turned to amusement when we saw the big sign up front saying, “Don’t feed the bears—they’re already stuffed!” We looked at armed forces bears, Christmas bears, barnyard bears, Red-Hatter bears, and even one that was holding a pillow that read, “I’m a Queen because my panty-hose told me so!” Our treasure was found on the second floor..in the nursery section, of course! It didn’t have the frills that many of the other bears had, but something about it kept catching my eye. It was a soft little bear wearing a bib that said “Nighty night.” The deal was sealed when I picked it up and discovered that it could wind up to play “Braham’s Lullaby.” It was perfect for our little ‘pinto bean’ at the time.

So, we could have come home with bullets and shells from the Civil War, but instead we have “Mr. Cuddles” for Jonah. Yup, even before he was born, Jonah had his daddy suckered. And from the looks of this picture, it looks like we made a good choice.

3 comments:

Cristi said...

Little Jonah is so adorable with his toothless smile. Hey, have you thought of starting up a photography biz on the side? Great site, Amy and Scott. We're so happy for your family!
Love,
Cristi

Anonymous said...

His smile is so cute!

Anonymous said...

HEY!! Where are the new pictures???