Meet My TWIN Immortal Polar Bears
It’s my birthday today, which means that I have a new immortal friend. Except this time, it’s a polar bear, and this time there are TWO of them––twin immortal polar bears.
The first is named Hillel. I decided to keep with the theme of Jewish philosophers––Akiva, the immortal quokka, Hillel, the immortal polar bear––because my animals are also very wise. You can tell by looking at their furry faces:
I am calling him Hilly, for short. Mostly because I had a friend in college named Hillel that we also called Hilly or Hils. And I always thought that was super-cute.
I was only expecting one polar bear but two showed up. So I named the second one Houdin after Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin, the father of modern magic. He is from Blois, a city that is special to our family, and… well… I love real magic AND fake magic.
Hillel and Houdin. H is pronounced in Hillel and not in Houdin.
Stuffed representations of my very real, very immortal polar bears.
So… my birthday. I am having big feelings about this birthday. I had a hard time leading up to it, and I’m having a hard time today.
I wish I could cuddle up with the real Hilly and Houdin, though I imagine that if I tried to burrow into their fur that it would smell like fish and sea water. (Let’s not talk about what bears could do to a small lady and pretend that Hilly and Houdin would never harm someone who loves them this much.) But since cuddling with the real Hilly and Houdin is not possible, I’ll just gorge on ice cream instead.
Happy birthday to me.
10 comments
Happy Birthday! I hope your ice cream is delicious and reminiscent of the tundra on which your immortal twin bears live!
Birthdays have become weirdly unreal for me. I cannot believe I am this old! How did that happen?
Happy birthday, birthday buddy. I hope the hard parts get easier. We can sit together with your immortal polar bears.
Wishing you the happiest of birthdays, Mel! I understand the birthday leadup. Mine always seems to feel like that entire Smashing Pumpkins album…Melancholy and the infinite sadness.
Hoping today is amazing for you. And wishing you virtual snuggles with your soft fluffy and wise polar bear twins.🎉🎂🍰🎉🎉🧁
Happy Birthday!! I’m sorry you’re having a hard time today. I am thankful for you! I discovered your blog when trying to add to our family. I appreciate you and how you connected me to fellow stirrup queens. I’m sending you good thoughts and lots of ((hugs))!!
Happy birthday! I’m sorry you are struggling. I struggled with mine a few weeks ago – I felt old, and watched my youngest graduate from preschool the same night. It felt like a heavy day.
Enjoy the polar bear snuggles.
Happy Birthday Mel! I’m sorry you’ve been having a rough time leading up to your birthday, but I can relate. I love your polar bears, they’re adorable. I always have a soft spot for them. I’m a long time West Highland White Terrier person and as tiny pups they look like baby polar bears. 🙂 Have a fabulous birthday and ice cream!
Happy birthday! I’m sorry the lead up and day have been tough – birthdays bring up a lot of feelings and such. That’s hard. I don’t love birthdays either for a number of reasons, so I hear you.
Many wishes for good things for you in the next year and for many, many wonderful years beyond. The bears are lovely and very cute.
Happy birthday and congratulations on your immortal polar bear twins! Hilly and Houdin are adorable and for sure snugglers instead of munch-on-Mel-ers. I hope you had a beautiful day, and there was more sweet than bitter.
Happy birthday! Your two new twins are adorable and I love the meaning behind the names.
I hope your birthday was a good one ❤
Happy belated birthday! I hope the struggles got easier.
In Finnish, polarbears are called ‘ice bears’.