Marie and I were noticing that Tilja really enjoyed staring and talking to the big red plasic jar opener we have screwed to the bottom of the cupboards which hangs above the area where we change her diaper. This place being the kitchen counter. That’s how it is in a small apartment.

“How cute” we thought at first, and then later felt a little bad that her big source of entertainment was a kitchen tool.

So on the weekend, while she slept, I took out my sketchbook, and some paper I had torn out of a very large magazine (Acne Paper), and set about doodling, and cutting out some actual “things” for our little daughter to look at.

Kevin had said he’d done this sort of thing for his girls – made a mobile in black cardboard, and they loved it.
Since little babies like black and white and red, I figured I’d better put my tinkering to good use. Make something to compete with the red tool.

So there they are – little smiley guys, a bunny, a flower, and a water dude.

Tilja thinks they are a riot:)

The funny thing is, while doodling for these characters, and trying to think of what to draw- I found myself questioning why I immediately thought,
“hmm… kids like houses, cars, teddybears and tractors and the like..”
Why?!
I felt it was pretty absurd to draw a car, or anything man-made for the new person we have in the home. Why let the Automobile Industry Lobby seep into her consciousness already? How creepy is that? Why do kids ooh and awww at machines?

I wonder if we train them.
A loud car drives by, the kid gets a shock. Instead of yelling at the car, the parent comforts the child with an “ooh, what was that? That was a car! Brummbrumm, beep beep.”

Uhg. Cars made cute, instantly. I couldn’t believe my thinking.

So – no.. no cars or other mechanical do-wrongies for us- it’s all natural, smileys and animals for Tilja. Maybe some robots… that run on solar power or something… but no oil driven cars, no. That’s for sure.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 31st, 2007 at 11:49 am and is filed under Homestuffs, Müsli Musings + Music, Pretty Pictures, Tinkering. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.