In Which Everyone Gets a Colour of Their Own

Last night, during that inbetween time after dinner and before bed, while Safiya and her Babo (that's Dad in her other language) were playing "going to the tea-store" and "going to the hot chocolate store",

I made this little guy:

A little while back, Safiya noted that her baby microbe (who is actually a pimple: propionibacterium acnes) was in need of a Babo. In her world, there is heavy emphasis on completion of the family these days, and while she is aware that there is a wonderful variety of families out there, to her two-year mind, if there's a baby, there'd better darn well be a Mama close by and yes, a Babo too would be nice. Her Mama microbe (ear ache: s. pneumoniae) was a gift, and one day we saw another of its kind in a store which she promptly declared was the baby. The baby is a beloved stuffed...animal?...and they both hail from this line of toys (genius idea). And, trying to stay in the crafty (and frugal) spirit, I thought..."how hard can it be?" Well, now we have the whole family (though the Babo's looking a little rough around the edges):


Why does the Mama have a blue elastic around its neck? Simple. She's a Mama and so she's blue. Everyone in Safiya Land is assigned a colour. She (and any other baby) is pink (obviously), I'm blue, Babo is green, her Granny is yellow (my Mom has blonde hair), and so on...the interesting thing is that now she remembers a lot more people than colours, so there has been some sharing of colours, some learning of new color names (maybe Auntie Mel can be fuchsia?), and some demotion (if you go from a primary or secondary to a tertiary colour you've been demoted).

Stuffed animals don't usually get me all warm and cuddly - I've always been more of a book and blanket kind of person (of course, that changes when you have a child and you consider building an addition so that the stuffed animals and dolls can live in the comfort that they deserve), but Hillary at Wee Wonderfuls makes probably the most charming stuffed dolls and animals (her picture, not mine):


and she is a generous crafter: there is a toy make-a-long, and free patterns - I highly recommend going and having a look. I also like Florence's Flying Star Toys, and if you're looking for a fair trade doll, check out Nova Natural for Waldorf style dolls (Martha has her own version).

The Babo microbe was immediately accepted with delight, and the first thing Safiya said was "But Mama, he has a pink mouth. He doesn't need a pink mouth, he needs a green mouth!"

Obviously!