Name: Claerwen Leahy. Job description: Stay at Home Mum. Employers: Winter & Baxter Smallwood aged nearly 2.5 and 6 mths. Qualifications: Fine Art Degree Central Saint Martins
He finds special ways to express these feelings such as sharing his favorite stickers with him
Baxter dosnt always appreicate the smother cuddle
Good news for those who have been fretting about Winter coping with the loss of his bear. Granny Liz & Pa popped in last night with a special parcel that they hoped would make Winter happy. Inside was a bear that Pa had made. Winter was gobsmacked with delight! He looks a bit different to the untrained eye but the most important features were still there, the hard shinny nose was perfect.
Rich took a very cute video of Winter celebrating - click on the video player below to watch:
Polar Bear was VERY important to Winter. He was always under Winter's arm, particularly if we went somewhere new or exciting (like on the train). He liked to show someone he liked them by offering his bear to them to hold (such an honour!). Polar bear got turns on his favorite bikes and shared his drinks and dinner. He often needed his nose blown and recently had started to do 'poo' requiring nappies. Polar Bear's most important feature was his hard shinny nose. Winter touched his nose to his lips as a little ritual, especially when he needed reassurance. At night Winter went to sleep doing this, it was so cute to spy on them sleeping together face to face.
That first night was horrible. I told Winter bear was on the train and that he had gone to the beach to play in the sand. I wont go into detail but it took a long time to get Winter to calm down and go to sleep that night. He woke up screaming out at 4.30 and we didn't know what to do. He is slowly coming to terms with his loss but whenever we pass the train line (everyday sadly as its just round the coner on the way to the shops), he shouts out 'bear train bear train, nooo no!'.
I remember falling for that quirky little bear in a charity shop. I had intended that Winter would develop an attachment to another easily replaceable paddington bear ('bedtime bear') that I'd strategically placed in his cot early on. I flippantly put PB in there too not thinking what a big boo boo it was to have an attachment form with an unreplaceable bear
Rich raced out the next day and bought 'panda bear' (from the zoo - easily replaced 7 days a week!). Thankfully Panda bear has been popular and a close relationship is developing. He is cute but dosn't quite have that same 'je ne se quois'.
Mum still gets teary thinking about it!
Before Baxter was born I had some spare time. I decided to enter a competition to create a design for a Mambo Bikini (the graphic not the bikini - they gave us a standard bikini to use).
Ed is a friend from St Martins. He is now studying Architecture and is in Aus on exchange at RMIT. He visited today and spent the afternoon hanging out.
Last time he saw me I was an art student who often dressed up in bin bags & garnished my hair with lettuce leaves. Two years later I have produced 2 different works of art and not a lot of garnishing going on.
