Aminals!

[windinthemaples]

Graeme, when asked on Thanksgiving what he was thankful for, said "Aminals!" without hesitation. Upon thinking a bit more about the question, he added "Mama", "Daddy", and himself to the list. He has a box of Schleich animal figures that are played with pretty much constantly. Those things aren't cheap, either! The local stores have them for about $3-$8 per animal! So, I would like to send out my general gratitude to the Universe and thrift store donors specifically, for all the Schleichs I find tumbled in with the tubs of junky fast food toys. Because of you, a camel, a draft horse, a wooly sheep, and as of this weekend, a baby giraffe and an adorably home-spruced silver-glittery T Rex have now found a new home where, hourly, they're called upon to rescue fellow animals from the dangers of the couch, the bookshelf, and the dreaded dark blanket tunnel.

I'd normally post a Thrift Finds photo, but I'm a bit busy today. In those fast food toy tubs, I also found five of the Gummi Bears, circa 1985. :D The figures are still in great shape and will try to vy with the animals for Graeme's attention. :)

Comments

[sugarmaplelife.livejournal.com]

I don't know if all kids his age are so gentle. He is a good-hearted soul, that's for sure. At one thrift store, I find a little plastic tree scaled for the animals. I showed him how the giraffe "eats" the leaves from the tree. Now, depending on the rescue situation, some animals need to be rescued because they're hungry. An animal will go in and pull or carry the hungry animal to the tree to eat leaves. The lion eats leaves, the shark eats leaves, the parrot eats leaves. At some point, I'll have to be more specific about what everyone eats, but for now it is unbearably sweet. :) The baby lamb "swims" over to the great white shark, kisses his tail where he hurt himself, and then they go swim to the tree to eat leaves and do a happy dance together. I mean really....gah!...it slays me. :)

[sugarmaplelife.livejournal.com]

Wow. Had some grammarfail! there. Forgive me. :D

[mermaiden.livejournal.com]

The mere DESCRIPTION slays me--I don't think I could survive the actual thing. :O I think I would explode from too-much-cuteness-to-contemplate in a literal nano-second!!!

[sugarmaplelife.livejournal.com]

Ha! I'm sure by the next time you see him, he'll still be an avid animal rescuer. :D You'll have to see if you can survive it. :D

[neva-butterfly.livejournal.com]

From experience, not all small children are gentle... I happen to think all kids, or at least in my experience are sweet, wonderful, etc, but many that I babysat or cared for when I worked in the daycare had to be reminded many times to be gentle. I babysat one little boy Kyle who loved animals and played gently (sadly we didn't know the animal rescue game), but I'd have to say that Graeme sounds exceptional in this regard. Not that it was malice of course for the other kids, some kids are wired to be thoughtful and gentle, some are wired to climb up the bookshelves and jump off I guess... There's probably some great evolutionary reason for the differences in temperament. I think the thing that gets some parents is when they have a second child and that's the type who climbs the bookshelves and they totally weren't expecting it.

[sugarmaplelife.livejournal.com]

That's true. Graeme's cousins are the type to jump off furniture and run around screaming. I can't imagine having that much energy. I was always the quiet kid, like Graeme, who'd rather talk to the adults than play with the kids. :)

[aerialmelodies.livejournal.com]

Completely and totally 100% dead from cute. That's so freaking adorable and kind of makes me wish I was a toddler again. He's good-hearted because he learns from his parents, and his thank yous are the adorably cute rescues he puts on. :)