Bear Necessities

Tonight is the night Barnaby came to stay: He is Emilio’s Reception class bear, the idea being that each child in the class gets to take him home for a weekend over the course of the year and you’re supposed to take a picture of him doing something fun or exciting: We will go to town on this tomorrow probably going exploring to the beach and woodlands just to give him a great weekend and to give Emilio something to talk about on Monday. Plus it’s more than a little bit of fun for and Isabelle and I!

This picture captured my two babies snuggled on the sofa with Barnaby whilst watching the Muppets movie from a couple of years ago. They were more than happy lying here. Content, worry-free for this time at least and immersed in a world that allows them to believe the characters are real.

Times like these are all I need. Bear or no bear, movie or no movie, me sitting in the middle of them or not, I need the comfort of knowing they are close by, in my home, just a call down the hall or a brief glance away from contact: To hear them laugh, bicker, talk, whisper, plot and attack, question and answer each other. To know that if they need me they can call and I’ll come running…a message they must learn and always hold in their head and hearts, even when with their mum and not physically near me.

I’m absolutely not disregarding their needs throughout all of this. Careful consideration is given to every decision and every action…but for the purposes of this journal, which I am using to document my journey over 2014, the focus in text only is on my needs, my necessities; and this weekend, they just happen to include a bear.

It’s just dawned on me that the most appropriate place to photograph Barnaby, considering the content and title of this entry, would be at Bateman’s, Rudyard Kipling’s home between 1902 and 1936: It’s such a shame it’s closed until March!