Blue Shoes and Happiness by Alexander McCall Smith is the seventh book in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series. I’ve been working my way through this series in the years since Wyatt was born, binging on all of the books that had been released at first and then picking up each successive novel as it was released in paperback. The books are pleasant and I find them enjoyable enough to have read them all, but they aren’t so fantastic that I feel the need to rush out to get them as soon as they’re published. The series focuses on Precious Ramotswe, the founder of the first female-owned detective agency in Botswana. In general, the books are slow-paced, sweet-natured and full of a subtle, wry humor. All this slow-paced subtlety had started to get a bit too exaggerated in the last few novels though and I often found my mind wandering a bit while reading them. With the most recent episode the author has picked up the action again and Mma Ramotswe has once again started to solve mysteries. They’re small mysteries to be sure — a black-mail case, a crooked doctor, and a strange mood on a wild life preserve — but there’s enough variety and interest to keep the reader wanting more.

Before our trip to the OC, I was pretty nervous about how Wyatt would handle Disneyland. I was concerned that it would be overwhelming for him, but I was also nervous about how he would handle waiting in line for rides. So one day when I was looking at the piles of scrapbooking stuff all over my desk, I got the idea to make him a special distraction book that I could pull out to keep him occupied while we were waiting.

I started off with one of the cheap, $1 Target albums I keep around. The cover was already pretty good, so I just personalized it a bit by adding a “W” sticker it.

Next, I went through our photo archive and printed a bunch of photos of Wyatt’s toys to add to the sleeves.

I still had a lot of spaces to fill after I did that, so I hopped onto Flickr and did some searches for things that Wyatt is into. I was careful to pay attention to the Creative Commons licenses assigned to the photos as I was doing this. Here you see a bulldozer and a tiger. I also pulled pictures of: cats, fire engines, diggers, trains, dump trucks, toy Thomas trains, a polar bear and a zebra.

There were a few more gaps left at that point, so I supplemented with some downloads on the Curious George and Dora websites.

Overall, the books was a success. I ended up pulling it out on the plane going down to Orange County and it worked very well to keep Wyatt occupied. (It didn’t work so well at Disneyland, but that’s another story for another day.) The pictures of his toys were especially well received, so I’ll probably make a point of photographing some of his favorites (his Mee-Mee and Polar Bear for example) and swapping them out. Which brings me to another nice feature of this book. Because it’s just a bunch of photo sleeves, I can put new photos in whenever I like. This will allow me to keep it interesting and current for him as his interests change. It’s also nice that I don’t have to worry about some of the photos getting damaged because I can just put new ones in whenever I like.

A Conversation at the Grownup Table, as Imagined at the Kids’ Table

GRANDMOTHER: Did you see the politics? It made me angry.

DAD: Me, too. When it was over, I had sex.

UNCLE: I’m having sex right now.

DAD: We all are.

As a liberal, Berkeley attachment-parenting type, I’m loathe to admit this, but my son watches TV pretty much every day. Of course, when I say “TV”, I’m using the term pretty loosely. When you don’t have a television, it’s pretty hard to watch TV proper. Instead, Wyatt watches DVDs and an occasional download on my laptop.

In general, I think this is a pretty good compromise. We get the convenience of using movies as a distraction technique when we’re giving him his nebulizer or trying to get dinner on the table, but we also have absolute control over what Wyatt watches. He never accidentally turns on a violent show like the Sopranos, for example, and he rarely sees commercials. The one notable exception to this is the commercials on the DVD’s themselves. Even there, we usually can skip ahead to the menu to bypass the “previews”, but Nickelodeon DVDs don’t allow you to do that. I find that to be particularly unfortunate because Nickelodeon has some of the most irritating shows. And by the most irritating shows, I mean Dora the Explorer. Dora is one of Wyatt’s favorite shows and the one I most despise, but that’s a different topic for a different day.

Here are some of the shows our whole family enjoys:

Bear in the Big Blue House
This was the first plot-driven DVD we ever bought and despite lots of viewings, we all still enjoy it. We started with the Potty Time with Bear DVD in a futile attempt to get Wyatt interested in toilet training and later purchased Sleepy Time with Bear.
Wyatt likes: Luna, Ojo, and Treelo are his favorite characters. We all call the moon “Luna” and the sun “Ray” because of this series. He sings the “Goodnight” song.
I like: All of the characters are likable and speak in modulated voices. It’s a good teaching show and we use some of the plot points to encourage desired behaviors (using the potty, brushing teeth, post-nightmare recovery). The songs are excellent — something that is unheard of in most kids shows. I also like the episode where Bear’s girlfriend, Ursa visits.
Potential parental annoyances: Tutter is a totally neurotic nutter and has a grating voice. Shadow’s laugh bugs me a little too, but I think her stories are pretty funny. Trying to figure out the relationship between all the characters can be a little trying. Is Bear Ojo’s dad? It doesn’t seem like it. Why does Tutter live with Bear if he has a grandma? You get the picture.

Cars
Wyatt likes: Mater, Kachow and the Combine are his favorite characters. He likes seeing the cars race. He gets some of the sillier scenes with Mater.
I like: Excellent animation and a strong story. I like the emphasis on community, being kind to others and thinking about people other than yourself. I tear up every time I see Lightning push The King across the finish line in the final race.
Potential parental annoyances: Don’t think too much about the anthropomorphism of cars.

Curious George (movie)
Wyatt likes: He thinks George is hilarious. The Man in the Yellow Hat is pretty funny too.
I like: The animation on this movie is really cute, it has a good story and there are jokes for both kids and adults. The music is good too — I’ve got the soundtrack on my iPod. David Cross. “You gave a monkey a latte? Who gives a monkey a latte??”
Potential parental annoyances: Wow — I can’t even think of any.

Curious George (TV show)
Wyatt likes: George, of course. Seeing an animated version of the stuff in the books.
I like: Every episode teaches something about math or science, but in a fun way. They’ve incorporated a lot of stuff from the books, but reworked them so the pieces that are inappropriate for toddlers are gone. No more ether, broken limbs, prison, or exploitation of monkeys.
Potential parental annoyances: Pretty much all of the boys on this show are boorish, at least in the episodes I’ve seen. Sometimes I can’t believe the stuff The Man in the Yellow Hat lets George do.

Finding Nemo
Wyatt likes: Nemo and Dory. All orange and blue fish are named Nemo and Dory now.
I like: Finding Nemo will always have a special place in my heart because Nemo, Marlin and Dory lived with us (via Wyatt’s Uncle Bon Bon) for a long time. As with all Pixar movies it has great animation, great story, good humor, blah, blah, blah.
Potential parental annoyances: There are a lot of scary parts in this movie for a two-year-old. Also, I know dead/missing parents provide a lot of dramatic interest for kids, but I don’t particularly enjoy it.

My Neighbor Totoro
Wyatt likes: “Totororo” The little totoros. The cat bus. The scene with the umbrella.
I like: This movie has a great story. The kids act like kids, not like stereotypes of kids. The scene with the umbrella is my favorite too.
Potential parental annoyances: Sick mom, but this movie is autobiographical and she comes home in the credits so I’ll let it slide.

Pocoyo
Pocoyo is a computer animated show for preschoolers. It’s not available in the U.S. yet as far as we can tell. Zach came across a clip on YouTube one day and when he showed it to me I instantly loved it. When Wyatt saw it, he instantly loved it as well. Somehow, some episodes automatically downloaded to my computer when I was connected to the internet one day and now I can’t figure out how to get them off.
Wyatt likes: Pocoyo and Ellie. He enjoys dancing along with Pocoyo and answering the narrator’s questions.
I like: The animation on this show is great, the music is catchy and cool and Pocoyo’s dance is cute as hell.
Potential parental annoyances: The episodes are really short (6 or 7 minutes) so I have to pay close attention and start new ones frequently — not always very convenient when the reason Wyatt is watching TV is so I can accomplish something.

Thomas the Tank Engine
Wyatt likes: This show is all about trains — a super favorite of Wyatt’s.
I like: I love the detailed little sets. The stories are pretty good and attempt to teach moral lessons that I generally agree with.
Potential parental annoyances: The Thomas the Tank Engine marketing machine is a force to be reckoned with and these videos are the strongest weapon in their arsenal. The more we watch Thomas videos, the more Wyatt wants to acquire Thomas merchandise. The faces on the trains creep Zach out.

Toy Story (original and sequel)
Wyatt likes: Animated toys — what’s not to like? He especially likes Buzz.
I like: These are Pixar’s best movies — great stories, likeable characters, funny, ground-breaking, etc. Confirms my long-held suspicion that toys come alive when we’re not around.
Potential parental annoyances: None.

As the parent of a two-year-old, I inevitably end up watching some DVD’s over and over again. Sometimes, this is torture — when Wyatt is on a Dora the Explorer kick, for example. Other times it’s tolerable – Bear in the Big Blue House, Thomas and Friends. And then there are times when I look forward to watching the movies he wants to see. Some of the shows that fall into the latter category are: Curious George (the movie and the TV show), Pocoyo, My Neighbor Totoro, and any of the age-appropriate Pixar movies. Lately, he’s been obsessed with Cars (or as he calls it — Ka-chow!) This isn’t Pixar’s best movie and I’ve heard a lot of disparaging comments about it over the last year, but it’s really grown on me after watching it more than a half dozen times in the last couple of weeks. The fact is, even Pixar’s weakest movie is better than about 98% of the other kid’s media out there.

That being said, repeated viewing of Cars has started me thinking about some stuff. This is a movie where the basic premise absolutely requires that you engage in temporary suspension of disbelief. Anthropomorphizing automobiles is very troubling when you start to think about it too much. Here are some of the questions that have been raised by my over-analysis:

OK, first off — how are baby cars made? When you look at the interactions between Lightning and Sally, there’s romance there and more than a little bit of sexual tension under the hood (Did you see what I just did there? Huh? Huh?) Thoughts of car-sexuality inevitably lead to questions about car-reproduction. Are cars born? If so, do they start out small and grow like a human baby? Or are they born full-sized but immature — like where they would just sit there at first and slowly learn to drive and run their windshield wipers? Are they some freakish combination of two cars in love? Exactly how do new models fit in?

If cars are not born, how are they manufactured? How is anything manufactured if “hands” and “arms” are actually a car’s wheels? Do they actually expect us to believe that a whole society could be created and maintained when the only hand-like tool is a tire? They aren’t exactly in the same category as opposable thumbs. And what exactly is Sally able to accomplish when she sits at her desk doing paperwork? She certainly can’t write anything down. She couldn’t hold a pen if her life depended on it and there isn’t a computer with voice activation software on her desk for her to dictate to. My mind — it boggles.

If all living things are vehicles, that creates a high demand for oil and gas — much higher than our current astronomical demands as Americans. Where is all this gas coming from? Are there oil wars between the United Vehicles of America and Oilraq occurring in the Middle East? This would explain what Sarge the Jeep did before his retirement though.

There are some serious class issues raised by this movie. “People” are born into their station in life. If you’re born (or manufactured) as a race car, you’re probably going to race for a living and live the high life. If you’re born a semi-truck, you’re going to haul freight. Sure, a race care could do road work (as seen in the movie), so there’s room for downward mobility, but a bulldozer or a minivan or a tow truck is not going to be able to even aspire to be a racing star. In a sense, you are born into the best occupation you can hope to achieve in life and there’s no where to go but down. That’s a very un-American ideal and for a movie that is so pro-American, glorifying the golden age of the automobile, I find this idea to be quite disturbing.

And finally, how is a vehicle determined to be an animal rather than a person? In the movie tractors equate to cows, a combine equates to a bull and VW bugs are insects. So what makes a vehicle a person? You could argue that cars get to be people, but that doesn’t work when you consider the VW bugs. You could also argue that heavy, working machines are animals (see point about class above) but then Mac, Lightning’s driver is a person. Further complicating the issue is Bessie, the road fixing machine who has no personality and appears to just be a piece of machinery. Huh? How does that work?

I just…I just can’t wrap my mind around some of these things. I’m aware that I’m over-analyzing it all, but when you see a movie 100 times your mind just starts to wander after a while. On the plus side, you also get jokes that passed you by on the first 99 views.

“He did what in his cup??”

New Knapford bridge, originally uploaded by Wendy Copley.

Easter morning layout with Wyatt’s new Knapford covered bridge. The Easter bunny got this at Michael’s with a 40% off coupon. That’s the best way to get Thomas stuff because then it’s actually affordable.