December 2007:   And here's Daniel getting his first close look at the Bear Hugs Jr. set that decorates his nursery:

May 2008:   At 14 months, Daniel is getting mileage out of the bears. His mom writes,

"We have been playing with our Bear Hugs set by placing the pieces in the circles on the back—labelling colors, counting each color, mentioning which color bear is in relation to another (the red bear is above or beside the green bear, etc.), pointing to the bears' arms, tummy and legs and then to Daniel's or our body parts. Pretty cool stuff to a 14-month-old! Daniel also enjoys stacking a couple bears on top of each other, hearing the click-clack when they fall on each other, and of course that first flip of the board to remove the bears!

We plan on mimicking the poses, discussing a little color theory (red and blue make purple and such), talking about what is the same or different, sorting the bears by traits and playing bear pose bingo :).

Bear hugs are definitely a very versatile learning tool for us."

August 2008:   At 18 months, Daniel asks often to play with his bears. Here he is filling the circles and sorting the colors. We're fascinated to see his perceptions develop, and curious how he'll fit in those extra bears (orange and purple) that were not part of the original set. Stay tuned.