Amethyst Sparkle

This is Amy.  She will be 10 in three months' time.  Her name is short for Amethyst Sparkle.  Amethyst Sparkle is the name of my favourite nail varnish.  On holiday nearly 10 years ago, whilst painting my nails, we decided that Amethyst – shortened to Amy – would be a nice name for a girl.  I then bought Amy as a birthday present for Nicholas two months later.  In a later post, I will introduce you to Barak, the bear who was bought during the holiday which happened nearly 10 years ago.  I might wait until July so I can post about him on his birthday.

Amy is a very clever bear.  She loves to read.  She lives to read.  If there's a new book in the house, she knows about it.  We say that she has book radar.  She makes a good reading buddy because she's nice to snuggle up to.  She's not always very patient, though, if she gets to the end of the page before you do.

Right now Amy is sitting on the bed behind me sneaking a peek at what I'm writing about her.  She's a curious bear who, because of her extensive reading, knows a lot about lots of things.  Sometimes she shares her knowledge, by way of a discreet whisper in the ear.  At other times, she withholds her know-how, not out of spite or a refusal to share her expertise, but because she wants you to find the answer for yourself – she doesn't want to spoil your eureka moment.

In this photo, Amy is wearing her pink butterfly t-shirt.  She tends to wear a lot of pink.  Although she isn't particularly girly in the sense of make-up, gossip or other characteristics associated with girls, I think she dresses in a girly colour because she has a lot of brothers and wants to hold on tightly to her identity as a girl.  Ever the practical bear, she is wearing pink joggers with her pink butterfly t-shirt.  The joggers have a matching jumper, which we bought because it says 'Sparkle' on it.

Amy is the most sensible of our teddybears.  She's the one we can trust to be in charge of the others when we go out.  She looks after them, referees their football matches and makes sure they behave.  She tries to do the same to us, jumping on us to get up in the morning when we oversleep and telling us to go to bed at night (although that could just be because she wants a bedtime story!).  She's good at giving getting-up hugs (giving you a hug in the morning before you get up) and at staying in one place to hug you all night and keep you warm and comfortable.  Barak, on the other hand, is not as good at that, but you'll learn more about him at a later date.

I have to stop writing now because Amy is telling me that it's late and I have to go to sleep (or read with her) because I have to get up early in the morning.  It is true that I have to get up early in the morning, so I will give in to her nagging this once.

I'll leave you with another photo of Amy.  In this one she is with her friend Jeremy under the umbrella I got for Christmas, which I realised just yesterday matches my Twitter background!