Meet Patinho, the Portuguese Duck.

Even now at the ripe old age of 16, I still have a soft partiality towards stuffed animals. They are so adorable, hugable, and innocent, and they bring me back to my days of youth when there were no worries and full of happiness.

I got Patinho last Easter as a present. He's so cute and squishy and he sits on my bed everyday. Sometimes when I'm bored I throw him up in the air or hold him while I'm reading a book. As dorky as it sounds, it really is comforting when I hold him. And crazily enough, it's almost as if he's my own little tot himself.

You might wonder how to pronounce his name, since it's in Portuguese. It's not difficult really, it's basically pat-een-yo. Just like anything else that I have to name, the origin of Patinho's name comes from an odd, long train of thoughts upon getting him. Since he's a duck, I thought of 'duck' in Spanish, which is 'pato'. That reminded me of the Brazilian young football player with the same name, which then took me to Portugal, since Brazilians speak Portuguese. And since he's a small little ducky, I thought of the word ducky in Portuguese, which is 'patinho'. All these thoughts that popped into my head were stringed together to bring me to the conclusion of his name. And voila! That's my little stuffed Patinho.

Isn't he adorable? I don't usually keep stuffed animals on my bed, but he's one sole exception. I know you are probably thinking, "is she six or sixteen?" Hehe well there are many things that I grow out of, like clothes and boy bands, however I don't think I can give up on little Patinho anytime soon. After all, everyone needs a little bit of youth in them, no?