Last Christmas, she made an “Ugly Sock Monster” for Ellie. She called him Syd, and sent him home with me when I went up to visit her last December. Here he is in all his ugly glory, at a diner in donwtown Richmond, with terribly unflattering on-camera flash on a point & shoot.

Ellie opened the package that Syd was in, and she tossed him aside. She just didn’t really dig him. I saved him from being tossed out with all the wrapping paper and bows, and put him on the top of her shelf as decoration, thinking maybe someday she’d notice him and want to know where he came from.

Almost a year went by. Every so often I’d catch a glimpse of Syd on her shelf, but he never moved, never got played with. He was lonely. Ellie can be merciless.

Then one night, we were heading off to bed, and she says “WAIT! I gotta have Chookie!” She runs up to her room and comes back – with SYD. I was floored! That night, she fell asleep with Duckie in one hand, and Chookie (Syd) in the other.

The next day, she carried him around with her all day long. She told me that his full name was Deer Coppola Beer Chocolatito, “but you can call him Chookie.”

That night, I managed to get a picture of her sleeping with Chookie. Awwwwww.