Joy Marie Clarkson, age 3, with all of her beanie babies and friends.
When Joy was a little girl, she wanted to go to sleep "just so" every night. She took "Spotty" the Dalmatian beanie baby around everywhere she went and she would not go to sleep without him. I thought about buying a twin spotty that looked like the first so that if she ever needed to go to sleep and we couldn't find it, I would have a spare one. Sure enough, the night came, where we were looking all over the house and couldn't find him. So, I sneaked to my bedroom and got out "Spotty 2" and yelled out, "Hey, guess what! I found him." I took him to Joy's bedroom and she took one glance and said, "Mom, don't you know? That is definitely not Spotty. That animal has a spot on his left ear and Spotty had two. I can't believe that you thought it was Spotty!"
Sweet Joy--14--my last baby! I want to hold on to every minute, she's getting so independent and competent and grown up and seems nothing can stop it!