November 6, 20 - The Story of the Ya Ya's

Here is a picture of Ben's "boo boo". It still has the tape on it from the day of the surgery. They said it will eventually come off by itself, over time. It is starting to curl around the edges so I would imagine in a week or so it will be gone. The dark line underneath the tape is mostly dried blood, since there are no stitches on the surface of his face.
















Here is a picture of "bear", also sometimes known as "Ya Ya". They put a name band on him also, so he could go with Ben into surgery and be with him when he woke up. I think little Bear was a comfort to him, while we were at the hospital.






A little story about the Ya Ya's:
The first Ya Ya, purchased at a grocery store in Volgograd Russia, has mysteriously disappeared and I suspect Mr. Ben might have put it in the trash. He has this habit of "hiding" things and likes to stuff all kinds of toys and books down in the edges of chairs, sofas and baskets. The second Ya Ya, which is now the "real" Ya Ya, was originally purchased at the local Tuesday Morning for Ben, since Nick had taken ownership of Ya Ya #1. By the time Ya Ya #1 disappeared, #1 and #2 were interchangeable between Nick and Ben. Just before #2 disappeared (temporarily, but around the same time that #1 disappeared), I purchased Ya Ya #3, which is also known as "Bear" and is pictured above. #2 is now Nick's and he has not accepted #3 as a true "Ya Ya", but only calls him "Bear". Ben accepts any "Ya Ya" or "Bear" and uses both names for #3. Fortunately, #2 was found soon after #3 came home.

Not long after #3 was bought and #1 had disappeared, we had just put the boys down for the night. We had searched for #2 before we went up to bed but could not find him. We went up anyway and thought #3 would be fine. Ben normally just throws his anyway and does not really sleep with it. Nick, on the other hand, really likes to sleep with his and gets upset if it is gone, as we were soon to find out. Ben and Nick were playing with Ya Ya #3, throwing it back and forth between their cribs, and as we were getting ready to leave the room Nick had it with him in his crib. When he saw we were leaving the room, he started crying, saying "Ya Ya". We pointed at #3, which he was holding, and told him "you have Ya Ya", "that's Ya Ya". He promptly chucked #3 towards the door, yelling "Ya Ya!!". This is the night that it became clear that Nick did not recognize #3 as a true Ya Ya. The only thing I have ever heard Nick call #3 is "Bear", although Ben calls him by both names. So, we had to search out one of the other Ya Ya's so Nick could go to sleep happily:).

In case you missed it in an earlier post, we were told that YaYa means "mine" in Russian.