My Love of Everything Plush

My love of everything plush began as early as I can remember.  This photo is of little me, holding my Pooh bear, with four of my other plush animals in the background.  Look at how happy I was!  Growing up, my very favorite plush toy was a brown teddy bear that I named "Jeremy".  Jeremy was a 1970's stuffed bear with a winder in his rear that played music.  I still have Jeremy, packed somewhere in a box in the garage.  I really need to dig him out someday and take better pictures of him.  I remember also having a stuffed panda bear that I loved, a stuffed Smurfette, and a small stuffed toy mouse.  Growing up in the 80's I remember Mom trying to get me interested in all the popular girly things like Cabbage Patch Kids and Barbies, but I had zero interest in them.  I was more interested in forming clubs and playing "rock band" with my girl friends across the street.  I also enjoyed things that made you think, like board games.  My favorite board games were Stratego and Monopoly.   I remember when I was about 8 years old, I played a game of Monopoly with my best friend across the street every single day for months straight.   Despite my refusal to play with dolls in my youth, I never gave up my love of stuffed toys.  I hope I have children of my own some day, so I can share with them my love of plushies.