Teddy has a smile

H has been asking for some time now if she could draw a smile on teddy. I, while SO impressed that she asked instead of just doing it, kept saying no. We only draw on paper, blah blah blah. She asked again last night, and something clicked in me and I (finally) saw that this was a really big deal to her. So I said, no, we won't draw on him, but we can sew a smile on him. Tomorrow. There was some discussion and indecision about what color his smile would be. Last night ended with me promising we'd make teddy smile today. I really hate making promises, especially to H, because you just never know.

While H was at school S and I went to get some embroidery thread, we got black, brown and pink. There were tantrums, there was traffic, the roads icy, I really wanted to watch CNN.

After school, while I was glued to CNN watching the inauguration, I started sewing teddy's smile. H looked at the needle and got very serious- 'its not going to hurt teddy, right?' She couldn't watch. I confess to being a nervous wreck and wondering what I was thinking jamming a needle in this treasured creature. I had a lot of performance anxiety.

The craziest thing, looking at these pictures, H was absolutely right. Teddy needed a smile.

before smile

with smile

Smiles all around