Hup, Two, Three, Four!

Juan Pablo is currently obsessed with elephants.
In particular, he is obsessed with bands of marching elephants.

Let me explain. A long time ago, Tia Chu made him a mix of Disney songs. Among them was the song from The Jungle Book that the elephants sing as they march. Some time later, we received several Spanish books from my parents that they had saved from my childhood. Among them was a book with characters from several Disney movies including, yes, The Jungle Book. This was one of Jeff's favorite movies when he was little, so he started reading the book with Juan Pablo every night, looking at the pictures of the characters, and teaching him the songs that each of them sing. Of course, Juan Pablo recognized the elephants' song from his CD. And then, one glorious afternoon at Abuelo and Abuela's house not too long ago, he was allowed to watch that scene from The Jungle Book on their TV. And since then, marching elephants are everywhere. He spends hours in the driveway drawing bands of marching elephants with sidewalk chalk. He marches around the house and the backyard singing the elephants' song constantly. He refers to Jeff as "Colonel Hathi" and insists that he be referred to as "Baby Elephant".

While Ana Luisa was still in the earlier phase of her recovery from surgery a couple weekends ago, Jeff took Juan Pablo on a special outing to the zoo. As soon as they got to the elephants, he started marching:
He was a very, very happy boy that day.

Last week we went to The Scrap Box to buy some materials for crafts. The results of our evening of crafting? Four marching elephants, and one bear. Who, according to Juan Pablo is "Winnie the Pooh's dad who doesn't have a name." Not sure where that one came from.

This morning, as has become customary, Juan Pablo started marching around like an elephant. Always eager to join in her big brother's fun, Ana Luisa was thrilled when she realized this was a game she could keep up with.

The kids spent a good fifteen minutes marching around the house like this, which means I got fifteen minutes with no interruptions to clean up the house and get the diaper bag packed up for our morning outing. It was a very nice little taste of what is to come...as Ana Luisa gets older and is able to do more, I think she and Juan Pablo will have no problem being able to play and have fun together. Those two are best friends already!