Little People

I grew up with Fisher Price Little People. Well, Little People and Weebles. Do you remember Weebles? "Weebles wobble but they don't fall down!" Good times. Anyway, over our parenting years, starting when Henry was little, we accumulated a few Little People sets - the farm, the zoo, the school bus, a helicopter. And no one ever played with them. Seriously, the boys rarely got them out and actually played with them. So I sold them at a garage sale last May - you know, maybe some other children in Cache Valley will get a lot of pleasure from these toys and I can make a few bucks. I kept the helicopter and school bus and a few random, uh, little people but that's it. And Tessa loves them. Of course she does, after I sold the cute little sets we had.

So Santa had to bring her some Little People for Christmas. Not a big crazy playset. Santa had a budget this year and frankly a $40 playset would have been fiscally irresponsible of him. But he did manage to find a darling little tea party playset, with a swing and a gazebo and two cute little girls playing dress up and pushing their stroller around the park. Tessa has alot of fun with them. She even incorporates the school bus, the helicopter and the Little People Mega Blocks in her personal imaginarium. I'm not sure what they are all doing. Maybe the kids on the school bus are going on a field trip and the silly little dog attacks them at the park and someone needs to be Life-Flighted to the hospital or something. Really, who knows?

I have to say that I'm a little relieved that at least one of my children seems interested in the things that other kids like. Because we haven't had much success with that kind of thing here. Fisher Price Little People? No thanks. Legos? I don't think so. Matchbox cars? Only if they fit inside a giant construction truck (correct names only please and no, that isn't a bulldozer) or can be eaten by an Allosaurus (a meat-eating dinosaur from the Jurassic period and the official dinosaur of the state of Utah - yes I know that!). My kids seem to have one track minds when it comes to their interests. It makes things easier in some ways but then look at all the fun things they miss! I mean, really, who doesn't like Little People? Apparently none of my children, except for Tessa. Which is OK. She's her own (little) person. Except that she does seem to like the Utah Jazz and has a favorite dinosaur (a 'ceratops, which I think is a Triceratops). She's not completely immune from Henry and William's influence, after all.