Lions and Tigers and Cows? Oh My!

Growing up, Katie's favorite movie was (and still is) The Wizard of Oz. If we had been given a dollar each time we let her watch it, we could have both quit our jobs and still lived pretty much the same life style we do today. We each knew the movie word for word. There were days we would choose characters and say only their lines.
We have enough Oz paraphernalia that we could probably open our own museum. It was showing on TV this weekend and we started watching it again, but soon discovered that Mattie May is not a fan. She was completely terrified of the Tin Man. She jumped from her pallet and into my lap burring her head where she could not see the TV. I don't know what she would have done had we made it to the flying monkeys!

But it brought me to the realization that all children have a movie that they love and will watch for hours on end if we will let them. Mattie's movie seems to be Barnyard. For the life of me, I can't figure this one out. This is an animated movie that runs about 1.5 hours. She will sit
perfectly still for the entire length of the movie. If you don't know this
movie, the animals are normal when humans are around, but stand erect and talk when they can't be seen. It actually has a good story line about what makes a family and taking care of others. But that is all above her head. Maybe it is the fact that there are a lot of colors and lots of movement and music.

The thing that bothers me is the animals are weird. I mean, excuse me,
but since when did male cows have utters instead of, well you know? That is just weird. The cows are also the ones that protect the rest of the barnyard from the coyotes. Isn't that what the dogs do? Maybe she likes it because there is a little chick named Mattie. This is a cute little chick that really reminds me of my Mattie. She has big expressive eyes just like Mattie, but they are green instead of blue. Mattie, the chick, has a personality much like our Mattie, she
is very loving and wants everyone to be happy. She is not afraid of the coyotes either. She calls one a big meaner, which is a pretty cute name in itself.

I guess my point here is that kids like what they like whether we understand why or not. So the best we can do is provide them with clean stuff to read, watch and listen to and to use this to instill the values of right and wrong. Everyday is a life lesson.

(I don't know what is up with my formatting)