"there's a million things i haven't done / just you wait, just you wait"

[larryhammer]

Public Service Announcement:

A crocheted Totoro stuffie with a pink doctor's kit bandage on one ear and a cast on the other arm is ridiculously cute.

(Pix didn't come out sorry not sorry.)

---L.

Subject quote from "Alexander Hamilton," Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Comments

[larryhammer]

For those keeping track of these things, this is the medium-sized Totoro stuffie (there's also one each bigger and smaller plus a plush backpack that does not, alas, carry enough to be useful).

[thistleingrey]

aw. Also, though, an opportunity to make a replacement backpack :D

[larryhammer]

Those would be the ones with Lightning McQueen and with Doc McStuffins we somehow acquired. They most mostly carry cars and trucks.

[thistleingrey]

Doc McStuffins has been popular here, too, though now waning.

[larryhammer]

McStuffins branding is more popular than the show itself, curiously -- I think we've watched only two episodes total. But we have the packs, a doctor's kit, a dominoes game, etc.

Current popular things: Peppa Pig, Batman, Wonder Pets, Spiderman, Busytown, Elephant & Piggie, and Totoro. Plus there's an ambivalent relationship to Star Wars.

[thistleingrey]

ha. FWIW (every child is different(tm)), Reason didn't really click with McStuffins show content until fourish, when she requested it almost weekly. We've been in a slow downturn since 5.75 or so.

Elephant & Piggie fascinates me for having an unusually long reach. Two-year-olds can appreciate it; apparently, six-year-olds who can comprehend Danny Dragonbreath may still find E&P compelling. We missed Wonder Pets, two YouTube clips of Peppa Pig failed to engage (though we have a stuffie, a gift), and the Busytown "Eye Found It" board game remains of passing interest (its heyday was definitely the year of being four). Reason has seen Totoro only once or twice--the lost parent worries her too much--but she likes recognizing how other people, especially adults, have employed recognizable bits. I've shown her some Ravelry patterns (she hasn't requested that I make one), and my workplace Slack has several custom Totoro-themed emoji that she finds ...amusing? Silly, because office=adults? Hard to tell.

For us it's an almost infinite trickle of fairy/magic-themed series from the library, all alike. My Little Pony is also waning, but Reason still picks up new Rainbow Magic and Candy Fairies titles from the New Books shelves despite criticizing them (perhaps only echoing my gentle nudges) for being predictable. Predictable is reassuring when other things are not, after all. Violet Mackerel is a decent one-to-grow-on series--less samey than Candy Fairies, at least, which is a low bar; Rainbow Magic is simpler still. We've had some luck with the Betsy-Tacy books (from the 1940s), though I don't think Reason really comprehends the high-school titles that my eight-year-old self never read--she's tried, anyway. Partner has spiked the pile with the Marvel Star Wars retellings--useful for understanding storylines that one's K/1 friends chatter about, without seeing the fear-inducing film versions, if one is (as Reason is) rather a scaredycat--and now a junior Nancy Drew is in the mix.

[larryhammer]

Useful to know about McStuffins age.

In books, we've read and enjoyed most of the Elephant & Piggie books, and are working our way through the empire of Curious George. In actual chapter books, there's been a few Junie B. Jones and other random series by some of Janni's friends -- mostly, we're still in early reader land, especially from Marvel: Spider Man, Iron Man, Avengers, and new this week, a retelling of the first five minutes of A New Hope, called Escape from Darth Vader.

We should try more fantasy and fairy tales, now that the idea of some things (such as wolves that can blow down houses) only exist in stories has clicked.

"Eye Found It" is a great game -- we adults are both enjoying it, at least for now.