For the past couple of weeks Hadrien's play has involved getting away from the "Bad Bear." This started with Baz and him pretending to ride a boat surrounded by "bad crocodiles" or the "bad shark" - the only times they're allowed to do "gunning" i.e. pretending to shoot these bad creatures with a gun, as other times gun play is forbidden. (Hadrien gets around that by saying that he's "spraying," not "gunning.") Then it became "bad bear" - think black grizzly bear.
Hadrien's first reaction is to run away from the bad bear, so he gets me, Mommy or whoever else is visiting (yesterday it was Gramps and Gramma) to get on his bus, which he then drives away with the bad bear chasing:
Notice the passenger seats behind Hadrien's driver's seat. Once, seated on the third seat, I pretended the bad bear had run fast enough to grab me. Hadrien stopped his bus, got off, pulled me back into my seat, then ran back to his seat to drive away.
Looking out for the bad bear was also a theme of this Diego playset installation he made:
The 'propeller' is actually a wind machine that you turn on when you see the bad bear, blowing the bad bear away. Diego stands by the rail, looking out for the bad bear, who might come through the forest at the base of Jaguar Mountain.
But lest you overanalyze this play theme and think that "bad bear" is some deep, disturbing fear that Hadrien's trying to confront, bear in mind that "bad bear" isn't all bad. After all, Hadrien takes the time to talk to him on his walkie-talkie, saying among other things, "Hello? Bad Bear? Stop fighting me! OK, bye bye."
And, "Hello? Bad Bear? I know the flags and you don't, hahahaha!" (That is, his flash card Flags of the World, in which he's mastered recognition of the flags of countries as diverse Vietnam, Somalia and the Czech Republic.) OK, so it's not exactly a friendly conversation with 'bad bear," but at the same time, it shows that he isn't scared enough to not taunt him.
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