Somewhere Deep in Bear Country

I bought the girls a few early reader books when they were around three.  One was Biscuit, which I don’t really remember from my childhood, but two were ones I remember fondly, Amelia Bedelia and the Berenstain Bears.  We read them each hundreds of times, but the girls particularly latched on to the Berenstain Bears one.

I remember being so taken with those fun-loving bears when I was growing up.  I think it was the treehouse that intrigued me so.  What kid doesn’t love the idea of such neat things being tucked inside a gigantic, rambling tree???

As a very special treat for the girls, the Christmas just before they were five, I bought a Berenstain Bears DVD.  They were thrilled to see the bears come to life on the big screen!  And then I discovered that the Berenstain Bears is available on PBS on-demand.  We still watch very little television, but the occasional family pile-up and sing-along to the Berenstain Bears theme song seems like a great way to spend a few minutes now and again.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been going through some boxes of stuff from when I was a kiddo.  I’ve found a handful of Berenstain Bears books that were mine.  The girls are smitten!  And then, I was tooling around online a few days ago and I happened to think to search for “Berenstain Bears”.  I found a great compilation of 5 books, in hardback, and I ordered it for the girls.  They were THRILLED when it got here earlier in the week!

From our new book, we immediately had to read three stories (all we could pack in before bedtime).  And it made my heart smile when I was putting the girls to bed.  As I leaned in for my last kiss, Baby A said, in her always-raspy baby voice, “Thank you for the Berenstain Bears book, Mommy.”  Awww!!!

I may have loved the super-coolness of the Berenstain Bears treehouse as a kiddo…and now, as a parent, I know my girls are loving that, too.  What’s more are the wholesome lessons the books are written around.  And I think it’s pretty darn cool how those characters transcend time the way they do.  I love seeing my girlies enjoy the same things I did when I was their age!

***

(I started writing this post on Friday morning.  I didn’t quite finish before it was time to get ready for work.  Sometime during the day on Friday, I got an email from a colleague, asking a random question if I remembered a cartoon from growing up, a family of bears, written by a husband and wife team.  “The Berenstain Bears!” I immediately responded.  Turns out there’s a funny spoof making its way around the interwebs right now, pointing out the parallel universe of “Berenstain” and “Berenstein”.  Quite the coincidence in my book…making me question…what role do I play in said parallel universe???!!!)