Plush Stuffed Animals Guru

When a friend or family member is in the hospital, a get-well gift is a nice gesture to show that you care about their health and wellbeing.  Stuffed animals, such as a Gund teddy bear, are traditional get-well gifts, and are still widely appreciated today.  You might also consider gift baskets containing food, candles, or even sports products (for when they get better).  Take-out dinners, or a homemade dinner is also a great gift to avoid the hospital food and help the individual feel more comfortable and normal. 

Giving a sick or injured person a gift they will be able to use when they are better offers hope and compassion in even the most desolate situations.

Like many American men, I try to avoid going to toy stores as I find it a chaotic place to shop. You can just imagine how glad I am that online stores are created and now considered as an effective and smartest way to shop these days for almost anything. From grocery shopping to purchasing a new car, you can buy literally anything online these days.

My daughter is about to celebrate her birthday. She is into collecting stuffed plush toys, so I thought of buying her one at an online store. I was expecting to find your typical selection, but I was thrilled to be able to choose from a variety—from classic stuffed bears to an adorable teddy bear frog. I ended up finding a steal on a quality toy, and what’s best is that I don’t have to endure the road traffic and long lines in the department stores.

In the world of plush toys, one character reigns supreme: the teddy bear. He’s been around for just over 100 years, and has gone through many transformations and adjustments in his time, but he still claims the stuffed animal throne.

The teddy bear came into being in 1902 when President Theodore Roosevelt refused to shoot a bear that had been tethered to a tree on a hunting trip. Almost immediately afterward, two Brooklyn shopkeepers created a small, plush bear they called “Teddy’s bear.” The bear was instantly popular, and the teddy bear phenomenon took off. Over the next 100 years, the style and look of the bear changed, it went through periods of popularity and even a few decades where it fell out of favor. But “Teddy’s bear” has always landed on top, and remains one of the most popular plush toys of all time.

Ecosystems make for a fascinating study, and few things are more enthralling to a child than the animal kingdom. Whether their interest is piqued by a Disney movie or a tidbit of information they picked up in science class, most children go through a phase where they have a favorite animal. Before your kid’s next birthday rolls around, it might be advantageous to ask a few exploratory questions about animals that interest him or her.

Remember that giving a child a stuffed animal like a plush tiger, can actually suit multiple purposes. First and most obviously you’ve offered the kid a source of comfort and companionship. In addition, your gift might get the child even more interested in learning about that particular animal. Anything that inspires a child to pick up a book has to be considered a blessing in this day and age.

My daughter just turned 5 years old, and now that she’s in kindergarten we decided to hold a party. She invited all of her friends from school and a few from daycare. My husband and I decided to make it a bring-your-own-stuffed-animal party, knowing that it’s hard for some kids to leave their parents at that age. It turns out that the comfort of a familiar stuffed animal can ease that transition.

When the guests began to arrive, I was somewhat surprised at the diversity and craftsmanship of some of the stuffed animals. The well-worn bears you might expect to see were all there, of course, but some of the kids brought more exotic species. I know a little girl from my daughter’s class brought her prized teddy bear monkey, and I counted at least two penguins. Sure enough, the party was a great success. The kids were so busy discussing and playing with their plush toys to even think about feeling homesick.

I had always harbored preconceived notions about raccoons. To me, they were nothing more than scavengers who terrorized raided my birdfeeders at night and bullied the household pets if we accidentally left them outside. Having seen them scrounging for meals in dumpsters and trash bins, I believed raccoons were a public health hazard. All of that changed last week.

I heard a ruckus outside my bedroom window and turned on the exterior light. It was a band of baby raccoons foraging for their breakfast/supper in our trash. Their adorable little eyes took a while to adjust to the light, and they didn’t see me for several minutes on end. The baby raccoons looked just like Gund stuffed animals I had seen my nephew playing with. How could I possibly hold a grudge against these nocturnal visitors?

You can try to prevent it from happening all you want, but it’s just inevitable. Kids are some of the most efficient mess-makers alive, and they are especially adept at covering their stuffed animals with layers of filth. Whether it’s food particles or bits of dirt from being dragged around outside, teddy bears are often covered in various debris that doesn’t belong in the bed at night.

In order to clean your Gund teddy bears, begin by wiping the bear with a damp cloth. Don’t use soap, but be sure to wipe with gentle, delicate motions. Sometimes a hand vacuum cleaner will suffice. Most stuffed animals feature a small tag that only attracts notice when you need cleaning instructions. These directions should determine whether or not you can safely throw the teddy bear into the washing machine.

My family and I just returned from a two-week vacation in Florida, and we couldn’t be more refreshed and invigorated. It’s funny to think that we almost called the whole thing off because of a cat. My 4-year-old daughter has a special attachment to Fuzzy, the tabby cat we got right around the time our daughter was born. The two of them grew up together, so it really wasn’t surprising that my daughter insisted on taking the cat with us on vacation.

But that just wasn’t an option. Thinking quickly, I found a plush cat online and gave it to my daughter along with the promise that Fuzzy would be well taken care of by the neighbors. The idea took some getting used to, but eventually the girl acquiesced and we set off on our cross-country trip without incident.