"Real isn't how you are made,' said the Skin Horse. 'It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.'

Does it hurt?' asked the Rabbit.

Sometimes,' said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. 'When you are Real you don't mind being hurt.'

Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,' he asked, 'or bit by bit?'

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 the 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

I read The Velveteen Rabbit to the boys tonight....a gift from Santa Claus......Oh how Elliott's eyes welt up with tears when the boy got sick as he must have been anticpating that hew as going to die, and then at the thought of the rabbit... being burned...his only comfort was the fairy who brought the rabbit to life at the end. But Elliott did not want his stuffed animals to become Real and leave him....so I spent the next 20 minutes consoling his tender heart....and we talked about how his stuffed animals on his bed were shabby from all his loving and then he looked at the foot of his bed and grabbed his Kitty (one I made him at Build a Bear) and said, I haven't slept with this Kitty in a long time.......That is Real ♥

Being a mom is my whole world!!  I didn't know how I was going to get through the end of the story as I could see that he was crying, his face red... and distressed trying to fight back the tears.....he said he wanted to have his toys forever!! I told him how lucky his toys were that he loved them so much. His Lions mane was tattered and the soft mane was now like dredlocks....from all his love! Of course he has probably close to 50 on his bed right now (we were trying to get him to put some back into the closet on the shelves)...but I think after this book he'll be adding more tomorrow!

♥ Once you are Real you can't become unreal again. It lasts for always! ♥