how to name your bear

okay. 

there is definitely a pattern in my life that i must address. 

the children i know don't give their stuffed animals typical names. 

let me go back in time a bit. 

to, say, 1983. 

in elementary school, i had a good friend named Stacy Friedowitz. 

our parents hung out socially as well. 

my little sister adored Stacy's dad, Bob. 

so much so, that she named her stuffed koala bear Bob Friedowitz. 

of course, this thing came everywhere with her. 

including the day that the real Bob Friedowitz took Katie to the park. 

and she left her stuffed koala behind at the park. 

this resulted in a small child wandering about the park with the real Bob Friedowitz, sobbing that she had lost Bob Friedowitz. 

fortunately, Bob found Bob Friedowitz. 

i would say that Bob found Bob, except that 3-year-old Katie insisted on calling her koala by his full name. 

fast forward to 2005. 

shortly after anth was born, bernie's former Assistant Hall Director, now friend, came to see the him with her mom. 

her name is Ankita Rakhe.

they brought him a Build-a-Bear as a present. 

anth still adores this bear, and he has prime real estate on his bed to this day. 

his name is "rocky."

except it's really "Rakhe," pronounced wrong. 

again, a very sweet, but literal name. 

here is anth and "rocky." 

(rocky has since recovered.)

when anth was three, my parents took him to Build-A-Bear. 

where he built-a-cat. 

named Kitty.

who he dressed in swim trunks. 

because cats love to hit the beach. 

because benny was three when my parents visited a few weeks ago, it was his turn. 

ben was more than slightly excited by the whole process. 

except for the noisy parts. 

benjamin dressed his black bear as spiderman. 

and he hasn't put him down for more than 5 minutes since. 

thanks grandma and grandpa welch!

oh, his name?

Ferb. 

clearly. 

it has yet to be determined if this is a nod to the show Phineas and Ferb, or because he has fur.

it is Ferb's job to sit in the rocking chair in benny's room at night while he sleeps. 

this is because he put the sound of a dog barking inside him and this is too noisy at bedtime.

according to benny. 

as such, this is the must-have snuggle friend at bedtime. 

it's ben's turkey. 

named Chicken.