Today I was stuck in a waiting room at the Children’s hospital and I got bored, so I decided to go poke around the gift shop. I was actually just intending to see what paperbacks they had, but on my way in I spotted a little stuffed Orca (later I discovered it was a Beanie Baby, and please don’t let either of my kids become obsessed with them).
Hayley recently fell in love with Free Willy and it’s one of her favorite movies. It’s to the point where, if she splashes too wildly in the tub and I ask her to settle down, she will look me in the eye and with a totally straight face say, “It’s not me, Mom. It’s Willy. He’s a big killer whale you know.”
There’s nothing in any parenting book that addresses gigantic imaginary Orcas splashing water all over your bathroom, so I usually tell her, “Fine, but if Willy splashes like that again, he’s going to have to mop the floor and go home.”
Anyway, since she first saw the movie about a month ago, she’s been asking if she could have an Orca puppet or stuffed toy but we hadn’t found any at our regular stores and neither of us was brave enough to go to Toys R Us for it. So when I saw it sitting in the window and that it cost ten bucks, I went in to get it.
(While was there, I got Breanna a little stuffed Dora doll, which also ended up being a Beanie Baby. And you know, Breanna is so damn observant of everything that she turned the doll around, looked at the tiny backpack, and then asked me, “Mama? Where Map?” I had to actually rip a small piece of paper, roll it up in a tube, and then stuff it in the backpack so that Dora had her map.)
When we gave Hayley her Orca doll she was ecstatic and of course she called it Willy. And later I found that this could prove to be one of those things that (thankfully) sails over young heads and makes adults who are 32-going-on-12 snicker wildly. Things like:
Sherry: Hurry up and finish your snack so you can get to bed.
Hayley: Okay, just a second, I’m playing with my Willy.
Hayley: Mooooom! Where’s my Willy?
Sherry: In your bed. Uh. Wow.
Sherry: Good night!
Hayley: Good night! Thank you for getting me an Orca! I love my Willy, I’m going to hold him all night.
Thank GOD she’s not a boy.
[Thank GOD she’s not a boy.]
Do I hear Amen?
Thank goodness she’s not a boy!!!
When that movie first came out years ago, my brother loved it. So much so that my mother bought him one of those HUGE inflatable pool whales. This thing had to be 6 feet long. And of course, he loved it, but it was so freakin big the only place it could ‘live’ was in the living room. I think it lived there for about 4 months before it was ‘set free’. So the beenie baby, cool idea. Stick with the smaller one. Cuz even the bigger one (ah-hem) brings on the 12 yr old jokes.
Too funny!!!! Something to remind her of at a much later date!lol!
You laugh now, but wait until you have all the bills from the psychiatrist to help her deal with her penis envy!
My sister used to love free willy. She actually wore out the tape by watching it so many times.
Cute story. Boys are nice, though, once you get used to them.