The Neverending Story...

Be honest. How many of you are now singing that song and picturing that kid flying on the big dog-thing? You know you are.

*Editor's note: It drives me NUTS when Blogger doesn't save paragraph spacing so it's all just one big jumble!!!*

My story doesn't have a kid being bullied at school or a flying dog (which, to be honest, are the only things I remember about that movie other than the song), BUT it does have two silly two-year-olds and a purple unicorn. :)

To begin with, I will say, I have always wanted to have a cool aunt name. I've always wanted to have a name unique to just me that held all kinds of magic for my nieces and nephews. Actually, to say "always" isn't true. I didn't really think of the idea until after my first two nephews were born. But then one of my friends, named Amy, became "Aunt A". And then we got "Ashie" into our lives. Then my brother declared his uncle name to be "Unc". I knew I HAD to have a cool aunt name. Of course, I couldn't think of one until one day, my niece, Carly, in an attempt to say my name, said, "Sassy". I BEGAN SQUEALING, proclaiming it as my aunt name. Afterall, Sassy is AWESOME and it kind of fits me. LOVE IT!!!

So I told her parents and my parents, "Don't call me Aunt Leslie in front of Carly anymore. I'm Sassy!!!" They, of course, still all call me Aunt Leslie in front of her. So now my name is somewhere around "Srashrie". (And since I know at least a couple of the people responsible for this -- *ahem* Nana and Poppa, who are both called by their desired names because I never call them anything else *ahem* -- read this, I'll throw in a huge *hint, hint, nudge, nudge* here. Start calling me SASSY!!!

Flash forward to this past weekend when I was at the parents' house. The conversations would go something like this:

"Carly, can you call me Sassy?"

"Assy"

"No, Ssss assy"

"Assy"

"Saa"

"Saa"

"Sea"

"Sea"

"Saa"

"Saa"

"Sea"

"Sea"

"Sassy"

"Assy"

Yep, like a katrillion times. (It's accurate. I counted.)

(My two best friends, though maybe not for much longer, keep explaining to me that this name applies to me just as accurately as "Sassy". Hmph!)

Flash forward to earlier this week. I was at the grocery store after dinner with T. They had a bin of little, tiny Pillow Pals. They're like half the size of the original ones, maybe a bit smaller. They are ADORABLE!!! T has one of the original Pillow Pals and uses it as a pillow, but it's a little thick and I worry about her neck sleeping on it. Plus we're taking a trip soon and I decided a teensie one would be easier to keep up with and would fit in her lap in the car better. (Plus, did I mention they're really cute?!?)

So I let T pick one and she picked the purple unicorn. This was doubly exciting for me as I had a huge purple unicorn (aptly named Uni) when I was a little girl. It was bigger than I was until I was at least 5 or 6. I kept her until after I was married. I think Drew and I actually moved her a couple of times before I finally decided she was loosing too much stuffing and just plain sad. I have a theory that all children should own at least one stuffed animal that's bigger than they are. It's a magical thing. (Can I mention here that when my *ahem* "girls" came in in middle school, one grew a bit faster than the other and for a while my dad, smart tail that he is, called me "uniboob" and it wasn't until YEARS later that I realized it wasn't just because I loved unicorns and was getting boobs. Awesome.)

I digress. (Shocking, I know.)

So I asked T if it was a girl unicorn or a boy unicorn. She said it was a girl.

I asked her what the girl unicorn's name was. She said, "I don't know." (She hasn't really gotten into the concept of naming her dolls and animals yet.)

I said, "Well, what name do you want to call her? What name do you like?"

(Have you guessed yet what's coming?)

"Ummmmmmmmmmmm........... I call her SASSY!!!"

Yep.

There ya go.

B. T. dubs, in the picture at the top, she posed herself. I asked her to let me take a picture and got this:

"I can stand by my UNICORN!"

"Oooh, I put my foot on her."

"Oooh, Mommy, wait. I put my hands in my pockets."

My child is a hoot!

Love & Shipoopies,

Leslie