A story I remember from my childhood.

We watched the movie first- the opposite of what we usually do. Avery and I enjoyed it so much. We both cried at the end.

After watching the movie we got a few books from the library- 3 adaptations and 1 unabridged version- very long!  We read the adaptations first- they were way shorter, then started the original version. It was just too much though. We decided to stop and just enjoy the movie again.

In the mean time, Avery made her own velveteen rabbit. We didn’t have any velveteen (like velvet), but we had felt. I was envisioning a puppet, but she wanted to make a stuffed animal. I helped her “form” the head, she drew the shapes on the felt and I helped her cut it out. She drew the face and the best part the bow around his neck. This was a project that took WAY longer that I had anticipated.

Avery and I made this chart together. I wrote “real” and “not real.” I led her to come up with real = alive, she came up with “fake.” She wrote the words in purple ( I like that she wrote in English & Spanish). Then we cut stuff out of magazines for each side. We talked about what each side had in common. I thought it would take a few days of revisiting this poster, but she “got” that things that are real (alive) grow and eat food. I was impressed.

When I was little, I had my own “velveteen rabbit” that my parents gave me. It was a good sized gray bunny puppet that sat on an empty wine bottle.  I have no idea where it is now though. My parents were here while we were doing all this Velveteen Rabbit stuff and told me they have a rabbit just like the one I had for Avery at their house. I look forward to giving it to her soon. They are off on a cruise right now, so that will have to wait.

What book is next?? We’ll have to visit the library to see….