A rose by any other name...

Would smell just as sweet. And a RAR by any other name would be just as loved. Anyone who is around Asher for more than two seconds can observe that the little guy has quite an infatuation...an obsession really...with dinosaurs. I can take most of the credit for that. After digging through some of my long lost treasures from childhood that were kept hidden away in the dungeon under the stairs at my parents' house...I rediscovered a dinosaur figurine that I had as a child. See...I was slightly obsessed with dinosaurs at one point in my life as well. In fact, I remember having a huge red and blue T-Rex kite that I insisted on hanging on the yellow and purple flower laden wall in the bedroom that I shared with Brittni and Cory. There is a picture taken of my 6th or 7th birthday where I am standing above my dinosaur cake with a smile. Not just any smile...one that was exculsively held for that moment. I really loved them and began collecting books that explained all about their mystery and majesty. So, after giving my figurine to Asher to play with and allowing him to look through my old books on dinosaurs...the bug caught him! With a pre-disposition to love anything that RARS (he displayed this from a very early age), he was hooked. The collection of dinosaurs grew to include "big rars" and "baby rars" and "mama rars"...and Asher became adament on taking them wherever we went. After all, they had become his very best friends. Because of the bad habit of leaving rars behind after we had gone to the park or to a friends house, we are constantly having to explain that some Rars went bye-bye or night-night and that having a lot of baby rars is just as fun as having big rars. Plus, Asher doesn't even need a tangible Rar to play RARS....he likes to imagine a "BIIIIIIIIIG RAR" chasing us into the security of the bed (under the covers where it is "darkkkkkkk"). Because of his flexibility (eventually) in letting go of some of his Rars...I am always amazed at the sheer excitement he displays when he rediscovers them after a month or two in a hidden place that only he knows where and why he put them there. It had been at least two months since Asher had last played with this particular dinosaur that was mine as a child and since then...he has evolved his labeling of these creatures from RARS to SAURS. So when he ventured into my parents' backyard and retrieved the beloved (both his and mine) dinosaur from the confines of the rosemary bush...he screamed in delight over the reunion of he and his SAUR!!! Even though this much loved creature was once endeared to Asher as a RAR....he (or she) was obviously loved all the same with her new name and neither of them paid any attention to the change.