Maya for her birthday received a very generous gift certificate to Build A Bear from her cousins Emily and Ellery. So last week, we decided to go. Neither Stewart or I had ever been to Build A Bear, so we were not quite sure how the process worked. After getting the download on what and how we do it, we went to work! The lady that was helping us told us that the hardest decision was going to be picking out the animal. She was right! As Maya was busy pulling all the animals out of the bins, Stewart and I ultimately had to decide for her. Stewart wanted the funny animals, and I wanted only soft ones. So, in the end, we agreed on a funny monkey and a very soft bear. (Our certificate allowed us to get two animals). Now that the animals were decided, it was off to the stuffing machine. Oh, before you stuff your animal, you need to decide if you want sound or not. We chose no sound. So we were now hard at work stuffing our animals. After a little convincing from the employee of the store, Maya was helping to step on the pedal to stuff. Our next decision was picking a heart out. Our choices were either a red plaid or plain red. Maya chose plain red for both of them. The lady then asked Maya to put the hearts between her hands, rub them together, tap them to get the hearts started and then kissed them before she placed them in the animals. A process that should have taken only a few minutes lasted for over 10! It was now time to give them a bath. This was the ultimate highlight of our adventure! Maya had a great time, and she spent a good 20 minutes washing and brushing them. The sound of the dryer and the air coming out was awesome. Maya kept saying, "more bath for monkey, more bath for bear." Thank goodness a little boy finally came up and needed to wash his bear, and it was for us to move on. It was now time to name the animals and Stewart and I were undecided on what to name these characters. As you can imagine, Maya was no help to us at this point. Any name that we asked her, she said, "Maya like." A couple minutes later, I had this great idea to name the bear chocolate and the monkey magnificent as the names sounded good to me! I finished up entering the information into the computer, when I noticed that Maya and Stewart were back at the washing station. The sales lady had to finally convince Maya to help her put a bow tie on the monkey and ribbons on the bear. Minutes later, we were on our way out of the store with Maya carrying two boxes; one in one hand and the other in the other hand. When we got to the car, she just wanted to hold them. We took the animals out of their boxes and went home. Ever since that night, these two animals take priority on her bed. Maya has since renamed them.....Sweet Tooth the bear and Handsome the monkey. We are not sure how she came up with these names, but Stewart and I love them.
Here are our pictures....
Unfortunately, we didn't get pictures of Maya pulling the animals out of the bins.
Maya stepped on the pedal to help stuff her bear. At first she was very hesitant. We think it was the noise of the machine.
Maya placed the red plain heart inside of her bear.
This time there was no fear to stuff her monkey.
She rubbed and tapped on the red heart that she picked out for her monkey.
She then placed the heart inside of the monkey.
"Washing bears legs." She loved the scrub brushes.
"Maya wash feet." If this bear would have been human, it would have turned into a prune!!
"Maya take home brushes?" Maya was a little disappointed that the brushes needed to stay at the store. We did tell her that we could come back and visit them. She seemed ok with that.
"Mommy help Maya wash monkey." How could I resist!
Mr. Monkey was scrubbed VERY clean.
"Bye bye animal store."
On our way home...
Maya and her new friends!
Thank you Emily and Ellery for the awesome birthday gift. We had a fabulous time at Build A Bear. Ummm..maybe we will get you guys gift certificates at Build A Bear for your birthdays??!!
Maya, your smile makes us smile. 
Maya stepped on the pedal to help stuff her bear. At first she was very hesitant. We think it was the noise of the machine.
This time there was no fear to stuff her monkey.
She rubbed and tapped on the red heart that she picked out for her monkey.
She then placed the heart inside of the monkey.
"Washing bears legs." She loved the scrub brushes.
"Maya take home brushes?" Maya was a little disappointed that the brushes needed to stay at the store. We did tell her that we could come back and visit them. She seemed ok with that.
"Mommy help Maya wash monkey." How could I resist!
Mr. Monkey was scrubbed VERY clean.
On our way home...
Maya and her new friends!
