Wizard of Oz

Louisa's new pop culture obsession is the Wizard of Oz and we couldn't be more excited about it. Someone asked whether it was too scary for her, but instead of fearing the "green witch", Louisa loves her. My mom sent a copy of the movie recently (along with another movie Louisa loves, although hadn't seen, How to Train Your Dragon) so when Wizard of Oz isn't playing in the background, we have a song or dialogue from the movie playing in our blue tooth speaker system thing.

Louisa is particularly smitten with Tin Man and will walk like him when we are on a walk (simply by taking big steps) and will dance like him, tipping from side to side. She also has a jack in the box Dorothy which accompanies her most places.

Because I have exposed Louisa to many movies, she has a number of favorites and often has to list them for someone new. We went out to eat for Cristina's birthday the other day and Louisa said to the friendly water, "I'm sorry, but Frozen, How to Train Your Dragon, Rise of the Guardians, and my favorite, Wizard of Oz". That's all. She says it to most people.

Shay came for the evening and Louisa insisted on reciting this list to him, then to Tina when we talked on the phone.

What can I say? She loves pop culture and animals. I couldn't be prouder.

Note the last picture of Shay and Amos lying in bed and reading to LJ. The reason they are laughing is not because they are reading an exceptionally clever children's book (a la Scaredy Squirrel which is laugh out loud funny). Amos got Louisa this book, Cuddle, for Valentine's Day. But when we read it, we realized it didn't really align with the animal loving/respecting world that she knows. The premise of the book is that a little boy has all these stuffed animals and imagines cuddling with them, including a snake, a gorilla, a tiger, a lion, and a shark. But instead of kindly and affectionately cuddling them, he claims he wishes he could cuddle them but, in the case of the tiger, "he'd end up as dinner". Because I'm not comfortable teaching Louisa that any living creatures are scary (other than Republicans, ha!), we change the description for each animal. But rhyming on demand is difficult, so the story always ends up awkward and clumsy which is hilarious. This was one of the multiple attempts we made last night to create an acceptably entertaining and animal loving story.