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Eagle Mountain, Utah, United States
My name is Lauren, and I live in the bubble. I am wife to Marshall, the biggest BYU fan in the world; and mother to Carly, our big girl, and Wes, our wild man, and Calvin, our new addition. I graduated BYU with a degree in Social Work, and I went forth to serve at LDS Family Services. I like scrapbooking and going out to eat at nice restaurants. I am fascinated by new cleaning products at the grocery store, so I have to shop in wide circles around the perimeter to avoid the temptation to buy. I love chocolate.

Friday, January 14, 2011

Nuga

Last summer, Carly got her first real imaginary friend. She had previously had imaginary playmates, but none that stuck around for more than a few days. And none that had a name. She went to play at a friend's house for the afternoon, and when I picked her up, told me all about the adventures of her "new friend, Nuga!" ('new-gah')

Nuga?
Where did she get that?

I called my friend, sure that 'Nuga' was a derivative of the name of one of her child's toys, or a character in a book, or TV show at their house. But no, she had never heard of Nuga, or an imaginary horse (did I mention that Nuga is a horse?)

Imaginary horses weren't that far out of the norm for our girl. We have had imaginary ghosts, dinosaurs, and bunnies roaming our halls (Okay hall. Singular. Our apartment was very small.) But they never stayed long, and certainly never had a name. Our girl doesn't name things. Her adored stuffed animals are "my doggy," "my baby," and "my bear." When asked what any of their names are, she smiles and says "I don't know; you tell me." And the names we make up for them never stick long. She just has no interest in naming things. So "Nuga" having a name was very unusual.

And Nuga has stuck around. Carly has a close relationship with her horsey friend. Nuga is insistently included in many bedtime stories, and is usually close by when Carly can be found playing pretend.

For Christmas I wanted to bring Nuga to life.

I had seen some hobby horses at local boutiques, and thought that would be a great, age appropriate toy to aid in Carly's imaginary play. So I set out to get more specifics about Carly's best friend (next to daddy). I found that Nuga was pink, with pink hair. Hmmm, hadn't seen any hobby horses that were solid pink.

I got onto etsy, my trusty source for all things unique. I found many adorable hobby horse shops. One in particular was reasonably priced, and I liked the pattern that the designer used. But again, no solid pink.

According to Carly, Nuga wasn't blue with pink flowers
She wasn't pink with small pink flowers.
She wasn't cream with pink paisley.
She certainly wasn't purple.
She was pink. Just pink. And none of that wussy pale pink. Nuga is bright pink. I contacted the designer, and luckily she was able to make a custom pink horse for me.

Christmas came, and Nuga was wrapped like a present on a stick. Carly unwrapped the box, and opened it to see the pink horse head. She pulled it out, and I held my breath wondering if I'd have to give guided prompts to let her know this was supposed to be Nuga.


But without pausing even a second, she exclaimed "Oh! It's my friend NUGA!" And they rode off into the sunset, happily ever after. Or something like that.

1 comments:

KarenOjai said...

Man!! I LOVE that lil' girl....she is just like her mama.... what an imagination, and what a talented writer!

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