Imagine

JillyBean's affection for Winnie the Pooh has grown the past couple of months. It's a love affair that couldn't make me any happier.

Pooh was my favorite fairy tale character when I was a kid. I wore clothes that had him on them, had stuffed bears, read the books. My dad's nickname for me was Pooh, and he calls me that from time to time today.

Me and Pooh on my fourth birthday

I recorded Pooh's Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin on Monday for me and JillyBean to watch. It's a fairly new movie that loosely touches on the final chapter of A. A. Milne's fabulous tale of a young boy and his adventures with his stuffed bear. It brought tears to my eyes thinking about how the story of Pooh and Christoper Robin ends with The House at Pooh Corner. Even as I type this my eyes are welling up with tears. It basically boils down to the fact that Christopher Robing grew up and was told that there were more pressing things to do with his time than to play make believe. He was simply too old to play with Pooh and friends.

It's very sad to think about life getting to the point where such "nonsense" is unacceptable. I watch Jilly and see her imagination grow daily and it's those little things that make me so happy that we brought her into this world. I have watched her set her stuffed animals in a row so that she can sit down and "read" to them. She lies in bed when she's not exactly ready to fall asleep or when she first wakes up and sings to the half dozen animals who sleep with her. She feels the need to share her snacks with her Lilly frog. Elmo must always be by her side when she watches Elmo's World. And today she pulled out her stuffed monkeys to play the drum while I read Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumbs.

The magic of childhood is an amazing thing and something that will break my heart when it goes away.

"Pooh, promise you won't forget  about  me,  ever.  Not
even when I'm a hundred."
-Christopher Robin