What brings me back today is Pierre's current obsession with puppets. For the record, I don't like puppets. Blame it on too many Chucky movies as a kid or that RL Stein book about the puppet that keeps coming back to life or my failed attempt at being a ventriloquist when I was 9 or the fact that I just flat out suck at doing voices unless I'm reading a story... whatever works. But Pierre currently LOVES puppets and our family has been more than happy to indulge her iterest. It started around Christmas when she got a beautiful set of finger puppets from Aunt R. Two of them struck an immediate chord with her- King Lion and Queen Elephant. She just wanted them to talk to each other while she listened. Didn't matter what they talked about, so long as they did it in a British accent. Several times a week she would pull them out and insist that I make them talk and I would manage to play for a few minutes before wandering off to unload the dishwasher or schedule an elective root canal. (Julie, on the other hand, is an AWESOME puppet player and loves this new development!) Then, about a month ago, my MIL bestowed upon us a collection of Disney puppets (Mickey x 2, Minnie and Goofy) from Julie's childhood. Suddenly, everything had to be done through Mickey- it was like Pierre had hired her own personal bodyguard/secretary/bouncer to deal with me.
"Pierre! Your lunch is ready!"
"Tell it to Mickey!"
"Pierre! Time for school!"
"Tell it to Mickey!"
"Pierre! Clean this up!"
"Mickey will do it!"
Just as I got used to spending hours a day with my hand up Mickey's ass, talking in a squeaky voice, a package arrived from Aunt C.
Any guesses?
A puppet, you say?
Well yes! A puppet indeed. A large pirate puppet with a stick to help him move his hand and gesture as he talks. A puppet that struck just a wee bit of fear in Pierre's heart and garnered immediate respect. On the first day she would not touch the puppet, but wanted to talk to it, warily, from a distance while Julie brought him to life. If she misbehaved, we would threaten to tell the pirate and she would lose it. This seemed like a puppet scenario I could deal with. Then, midway through the pirate's first day in our house, we struck gold. For some reason we're still not clear on, Pierre decided that should could impress the pirate by peeing on the toilet without having to be told (she's been potty trained for over a year, but seldom goes spontaneously. We always have to drag her there and put her on the toilet.) The moment she was done she insisted Julie animate the puppet so she could tell him that she had peed. And the pirate praised her to high heavens. And then this became a thing. For days she has been going to the toilet on her own and then running to the pirate for praise. We don't know why, but the pirate did it. He finally got Pierre to notice when she has to use the bathroom. We'll never quite understand this, but we are incredibly grateful to him. (We'll also never understand why Pierre occasionally taunts the pirate by pointing out quite smugly that he has no feet. It's a complex relationship.)
Today Pierre has been unusually intense about the puppets and has been introducing them all to one another. Mickey, meet King Lion. King Lion, this is the Pirate. Pirate, meet Minnie. Seal, this is Giraffe. At some point, my brain started to go numb. That was when Goofy noticed Dudly.
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