Grandma’s Continuing Education

When my kids were little, I knew almost all the names of the various cartoon people in their world. I knew all the Ninja Turtle folk—both good and bad, most of the Smurfs, Rainbow Bright and her friends, Strawberry Shortcake and her friends, most of the My Little Pony gang, etc. And Barbie was Barbie! No matter what hair color she had. Yes, she had a few friends with their own names, but they looked different, too.

Now that Lia is in my life, I’m finding that I have to learn a whole new cast of characters. There are different looking ponies now, with different names. All the Disney movies now have their own “Barbie” dolls, with specific looks and names. And even the regular Barbies often have their own look and name. And Lia has them all, by the way. Ponies and Barbies. And now there’s Tinkerbell and all her fairy friends to learn too! And since S & C don’t have cable, Lia watches movies all the time. Over and over. The same movies. Then she’ll move on to another movie or two and watch those over and over for a while. While I was visiting this last time, we saw the 2^nd Mermaid movie and the old Disney version of Alice in Wonderland. Over and over. In play, Lia will re-enact parts of the movies, using her various dolls and stuffed animals for the characters. She will assign me a doll/animal and tell me who it is, then she’ll take her “character” and feed me lines! I may not have paid strict attention! I won’t know my lines! She’ll correct me! She’s memorized these movies! Then she’ll switch without notice and the former Rapunzel doll which had become Pocahontas, is now Ariel from the Mermaid movie. And if I voice the wrong character, Lia gets mad at me! Can’t win!

But it’s all good, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. Bring ‘em on…Grandma can handle it…