A Utah mom kept a secret from her husband for an unbearably sweet reason.
In a viral TikTok video, Kylie Katich, 27, shared the story behind her 7-month-old daughter Esti’s adorable brown bear suit.
Katich starts by explaining that she was still pregnant with Esti when her husband, Alex, 29, bought the teddy bear zip-up.
“He became obsessed with it and dresses her in it almost every single day,” Katich tells her more than 500,000 followers. “The only problem is that she grows out of it, and I haven’t had the heart to tell him that yet.”
Katich then confesses she’s been “secretly replacing” the bear suit every month since Esti was born.
“Except, guys, then I found out that he knows the secret!” she exclaims, as the camera pans to Alex, who is holding Esti. It’s only fitting that the little girl is wearing her bear suit.
“It’s like when you have a fish and it dies and your parents replace it before you can see it — that’s what this bear suit is like,” Alex says, with a big smile.
The adorable video has been seen nearly 16 million times since Katich posted it on Nov. 5.
Katich, a photographer in Salt Lake City, told TODAY Parents that Alex was “very nervous” about becoming a dad. He didn't have much experience with kids. But that all changed when Alex stumbled upon the bear suit at a local H&M.
“He took photos of it in the store. And that night, he laid it in bed with us,” Katich recalled. “Every time he would take a nap on the couch, the bear suit was with him. Then, when it was time to head to the hospital, the bear suit was the only thing he wanted to pack.”
Alex's attachment to the the bear suit only grew when their little cub was born, and Katich said she experienced full-blown panic when the suit sold out online.
“When they restocked it, I ended up buying all the sizes,” she confessed.
Katich noted that she recently purchased a white polar outfit to “mix it up a little.”
“Otherwise, Alex would have her in the brown bear suit every day,” Katich said. “It’s the only thing he wants to dress her in.”
Katich understands Alex’s emotional attachment to the outfit.
“The second he saw the bear suit, fatherhood clicked and became real for him. I watched it happen,” she said. “It sounds so silly and weird but he truly nurtured this little bear suit. The bear suit was the first thing that made him like, ‘This is really happening and I'm ready.’”
Comments continue to pour in on Katich's TikTok.
"Omg this is so wholesome," wrote one person.
Added another, "Petition for you to keep every bear suit so that one day you can see how much she’s grown simply by lining the bear suits up next to each other."
Related video:
