Obsessions

What were you obsessed with as a kid?  I remember there was one particular kids’ book - it had no words, just pictures.  And it had something to do with a turtle, that maybe had an egg, and the egg finally hatched, and out came the baby turtle.  I have no idea what I loved about this book, and neither did my dad - I remember him asking me once why I wanted that book again. But I did know exactly where it was in the library, every time we went.  Here’s what our kids obsess about these days:

The dishwasher

Our dishwasher emits an electronic beep any time it is opened or shut.  In true Pavlov form, Cara unfailingly hears this beep, from anywhere in the house, and immediately drops whatever she’s doing to beeline over to the dishwasher, for who knows what.  She does love to steal the bottle rings and we have to catch her in order to put them back.  Cara doesn’t have many obsessions yet, but this one is obvious - and I’m sure there will be more to come.

Kitty and blankets

Anna has a little kitty (you’ll see it in a lot of the pictures she’s in), she just adores and takes everywhere.  Our friend Christina brought it back from Japan, so heaven help us if this kitty ever gets lost or falls apart.  Kitty always stays with one, preferably two, blankets, which are just thin cloth diapers.  The only reason I can think Anna loves these “blankets” is that I would put one over her head when she wouldn’t stop crying as a baby, and she thought it was funny. I guess she came to love them.

The Little Drummer Boy

Last Christmas, we were listening to some music, and my choir’s version of The Little Drummer Boy came on.  Anna loved it, and wanted it played over and over again and again.  For a month or two, whenever we played any music, she’d say “No, no! Drummer Boy!”  And what impressed me was that she knew most of the lyrics… especially the “rum pum pum, puuummmmmmmm.”

The tallest tower

There is an episode of “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse” where Daisy Duck is stuck in one of three towers (the tallest one), and Mickey has to get her down.  For months, everything big or tall, was “the tallest tower” to Anna.  She’d click several markers together, stand them up, and say “It’s the tallest tower!” and pretend to rescue Daisy.  Even looking up at our house - it was the tallest tower.  I remember things seeming huge when I was little, like our Christmas tree, only to be disappointed when I realized it wasn’t as big as I remembered.