Loveys Revisited

Someone at Ten Speed Press, the press that published Dirty Wow Wows and Other Love Stories: A Tribute to the Companions of Childhood, left a comment to this prior Teaworthy post that they are having a contest for Loveys. I entered my Ted and my daughter's Bu. (They are featured midway down the page.)

Ted (now 30) was my first Christmas present from my dad. Bu (now 2) was my husband's first gift to our daughter. Here they are:



Ted has become like the Skin Horse in The Velveteen Rabbit, teaching Bu the ropes of what it means to be loved, to be real, to a little girl.



"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in your joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand." The Velveteen Rabbit