Anna and the Eight Year Old

I own a Build-a-Bear and I'm not ashamed to say it. With four men in the house it's nice to have something girly hanging around. But I assume I've turned into one of those weird women who only have boys and are desperately attempting to have anything feminine in their house. Her name is Anna. She sits on the antique child’s rocking chair in our foyer. However she doesn’t just sit, she has a job to do. She’s a holiday/seasonal decoration. She has a Halloween costume, a Santa Claus suit and a lovely dress for Valentine’s Day. But she didn’t have anything to wear this Spring/Summer. So today using leftover gift certificates from the boys, Anna got a lovely Sundress. Then I had an Oh-No moment just as I pressed the “pay now” button. No shoes. How can she not have any shoes?

At first I was looking at the bathing suits, and I couldn’t decide if Anna is the kind of bear that would wear a bikini or a tank, so Patty got a call. Oddly enough Patty didn’t know either, so I went with the sundress. Patty laughed at me when I realized there weren’t any shoes and I had to hang up and call the company and add them to the order.

I felt a little weird after Patty's response to my problem, as if my inner eight year old was showing TOO much. I called Build-a-Bear and the representative answered. At this point I would like to say thank God there are other freaky people in the world just like me.

“Build-A-Bear, how can I help you?” she said in a very upbeat voice.

I explained what had happened, “Hello. I just placed and order for a sundress and realized I didn’t get any shoes.”

“My goodness! We can’t have that, can we?” She says in an overly excited, but genuine tone. She asked for my order number and brought it up on her computer. “That dress is adorable. What shoes would you like to add?”

“Well, I was thinking the White Butterfly Espadrilles.”

“Definitely! They will look to cute with the dress. Now do you need to add any panties?” She inquires.

It almost killed me to say this because I had to use the “P” word, but I replied, “No. My bear is the fat bottomed variety and the panties wouldn’t fit.”

“Oh, that’s horrible. People kept telling me that. I’m going to put in a request for a different panty design for the big bottomed bears. I’ve meant to do it and keep forgetting.”

“That’s great thanks. Hopefully it will happen.” We finished the transaction and I think to myself that lady’s inner eight year old is out and running around all day. The best part is she gets to be an eight year old with other adults. Can you imagine how many conversations she has on a daily basis, just like ours. What fun! I want to do something like that when I grow up . . . . not entirely grow up.

I like my inner eight year old. I’m glad she’s surrounded by thirty-eight year old so my house isn’t filled with Build-A-Bear stuff and I don’t spend the day dressing and undressing a stuffed bear. But this inner eight year old keeps life fun and kooky and if she grows up I’m totally going to miss her.