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You know, for the kids

By November 21, 2006monkeys, sites to see

My pal Shelly, appreciator of all things small, unusual and cute, sent me this link this morning. She suggested it as a companion piece to the message beans I wrote about before and I tell ya — I agree with her.

The Plant-Me Pet is a biodegradable latex doll with plant seeds for eyes. You can play with them or bury them head first in soil to sprout into edible pumpkin, melon, or tomato plants. I love their talking bubbles and I love their shapes and their colors and the way their seedy eyes augment their different personalities.

The only problem I can see, vis-a-vis Zoe and Lucy is that they may not like the idea of burying someone. Ever since my aunt passed away in January of this year, Zoe and Lucy have been working “death” around and around in their little 4-yr-old brains, and through a series of recent, unavoidable situations, it’s been a major topic of discussion with them.

Like yesterday, Lucy asked if she could ride in the front seat with me when we drove home from my parents’ house. I explained that she couldn’t, that it wasn’t safe. She then asked me if our car had air bags. I stepped right into the trap and said “yes.” Turns out she had been discussing air bags with my dad and was already developing a phobia over them. “Are they hard?” she asked. “If one opens on you, will it make you die?” Then she wouldn’t get in the car at all until I convinced her that there weren’t any air bags in our car.

Uh.

Or when Zoe was eating some pink bubblegum princess toothpaste and I said “Don’t eat that! It will give you a tummy ache!” And she asked, “Will eating toothpaste die me?”

Uh.

So, while I hate worrying these precious little Plant-Me Pets into something way heavier than they are intended to be, I can absolutely see how planting them might easily turn that way here at the UpsideUp.

Still and all, I think they’re darn cute, so someone go buy some and tell me how it goes!

Join the discussion 3 Comments

  • Susan says:

    Oddly, but perhaps it’s a relief, we don’t seem to have much concern about death in our family. We’ve had a cat, a dog, an (great)uncle and a (great)grandfather die over the last few years and the kids have not been terribly concerned with it. One time, many months after Mazzy (the dog) died, Sam and I were in the yard and Sam started checking out Mazzy’s grave. Then he got really sad for a while and we talked about missing someone who’s gone. But that was it. Sam grieved more for my CAR when we traded it in for a new one! (Because he was afraid people wouldn’t know it was us if we weren’t in our old car – interesting modern identity definition, huh?) Anyway, I actually think that planting something and having something new grow out of it is a nice way of thinking about death – the whole life cycle thing, dust to dust or whatever. Unfortunately, I don’t have a lot of confidence that the seeds on these dolls will actually sprout. And then “you’ve got some ‘splainin’ to do!”

  • Jenny says:

    Oh the death thing…I’m so not looking forward to having to explain that one to Hailey. Maybe I’ll get lucky and all her grandparents will live forever.

  • fin says:

    Gotta love the moma store. Unfortunately, my eggling never grew….

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