Bear hunts

By Published On: March 27th, 2013

You know when you get sort of desperate and you […]

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You know when you get sort of desperate and you try everything you can to get your child to go to sleep? Enter the “bear hunt.” Every day Matilda and I go on two bear hunts. We go on one around lunch and then one at night. Sam has tried, but there are lots of rituals involved here. It sort of requires a manual and I love that it’s ours. Wanna hear about the hunts? Prepare yourself to be amazed at how unafraid I am to make a fool of myself in front of my child (she loves it).
We start by picking out our boots. We pick colors, styles, etc. We then move on to the stairs. Weather conditions are determined, obstacles are defined, and whatever terrifying creature we might have to face is identified. I usually try and scare Matilda and she giggles. My favorite. When we get to the top of the stairs there’s a closet that I go in and shut the door. In my scariest voice I ask her for her password to which she responds in her little voice without fail, “May I please come in?”. Once inside the “cave” it’s a race to the bed where she hides. This is where things get a little weird.
I then turn into a fairy and have the highest pitched voice you’ve ever heard. I “discover” her hiding in her bed and we have this whole dialogue that we do. Then I put fairy dust in her eyes and give her wings (each time a different colors, texture, glitter type, etc) and then we read a story in Angelino’s voice (that’s the fairy—duh). I wanted to write this down and share it because I don’t want to ever forget our little things that we do together. No one else can be Angelino, it has to be me and no one knows all of our little bits to our hunt (which has nothing to do with bears, btw). I treasure it all. I know that one day she’ll be way too cool to do this with me and I don’t want to forget a single detail. Life with Matilda is precious.