stylin' and profilin'

Time for another post about Barnabas Bear. (If you need to catch up with who Barnabas the Bear is, you can check out these posts: #1, #2, #3) On the day that Barnabas entered my life, he was wearing a brown t-shirt and blue jeans, and that is what he has been wearing ever since. I don't dwell on it too much, because he seems to really like the outfit and he keeps it fairly clean. Occasionally he gets a little too lean, and I wish he would get a belt cause his pants are always falling off. Oh well.

But the bear's wardrobe, or lack thereof, has always bothered my mother. So on occasion, I have looked in craft stores for bear clothing, because there's usually an aisle where you can make your own bear and dress it up. But most of those clothes are for girl bears, so I've always been out of luck. Oh! You know what else I was out of luck on? When the pope visited America, Build-a-bear released a tiny little bear shirt that commemorated the occasion, but it was only sold in D.C. area stores. Oh well again.

Finally, though, my mother had some luck finding additional outfits for Barnabas. The last time I went home, I found a tiny bear sweater and some bear pajamas on my bed. Man oh man it was like Christmas all over again. Mom said to tell Barnabas that the clothes were from his grandmother, which was about as creepy and awesome all at the same time as you might expect.

So now Barnabas has three outfits, basically. I worry that soon I will have to clear out a shelf for him or something.

His new blue sweater says "Little Star" and has various sports depicted upon it. It's a good sweater to wear when Barnabas watches sports with his new little brother Chester, who came already attired in athletic gear:

Now, on to the pajamas. The creepiest thing about these pajamas, from my perspective, is that they have an opening at the crotch as if Barnabas were a real male bear that might need to go to the bathroom. Now, I know I treat my bear like he is a real person, but that is weird even to me. And it can't be for a teddy tail, which was my first thought, because they're in the front of the pants and not the back. Well, I'm going to try not to focus on that.

In addition to the weird opening, the pajamas concern me ever so slightly because Barnabas already does a lot of lounging around. Hopefully these pajamas will not completely turn him into a Howard Hughes-style recluse. So far, though, he is proving to take more of a Hugh Hefner tack, wearing his pajamas around and macking on the ladies. Here is how I found Barnabas just the other night:

But I raised Barnabas to be a gentleman, and he arose in the morning to make everyone coffee and poptarts: