In which Doug takes up millinery.

When Kate went to the Tracys' house when Andy was born, Catharine (who was her Sunbeam teacher at the time but has since gone on to BYU Idaho) gave her a few things that she'd gotten from her job at the zoo. One of them was this Mama Mirabelle DVD. Mama Mirabelle is an elephant with a video camera, who takes home movies all about animals (it's a National Geographic thing). I remember Doug and Kate brought the movie to the hospital when they came to visit me and Andy, and we watched it there. Anything to do with animals is pretty sure to be a hit with Kate.

Mama's son Max (also an elephant, obviously) has two friends named Bo (a cheetah) and Karla (a zebra--apparently British because she pronounces it "zeb-ra"). Kate has a little baby zebra in her Playmobil toys, and it didn't take her long to decide that the zebra was Karla. So then we had to go online and see what Playmobil made in the way of elephants and cheetahs. We haven't found a cheetah yet, but yes, they do have elephants--a mama and baby set! Perfect!

Last Thursday Doug took Kate out for the afternoon. They went downtown and rode the Link (always fun) and went to the Learning Sprout, which is quite probably the coolest store in town. They came home with the elephants. Kate was very excited. We admired the mama elephant's heft and articulation (jointed ankles!) and the way the ends of their trunks are shaped like Playmobil people's hands, so they can hold things (clever!) but Kate informed us that the set was not complete because Mama needed a hat.

Mama Mirabelle wears a pith helmet with blue flowers on it. Obviously this elephant cannot be Mama without a hat. Doug tried making a pattern for a paper hat, but decided that would not fit the purpose, so he made one out of Sculpey.




(He's so resourceful!) Kate is very pleased with her elephants. You can see Mama and her friends here.