Daddy's Favorite

Owen's favorite thing is Cars (the Pixar movie). When we leave his school, I ask who's at home, and he says, "Mommy, Sophie... and my cars." So when he gets home, he goes to Joanne, but then it's generally Cars time.

I believe the biggest cause of his Cars fixation was my purchase of Meet the Cars, which got him familiar with all the characters. Oddly, it does not have DJ, Boost, Wingo, and Snotrod, the characters instrumental in McQueen arriving in Radiator Springs in the first place. That book, which I got in April, is apparently now out of print and Amazon has 3rd party sellers selling it for $40+. I almost feel obligated to get a second backup copy for the last remaining copy under $10. This might be a data point that supports Joanne's thought that Cars is the next Star Wars of merchandising. But I digress...

I purchased a lot of 50 on Ebay earlier in the year. He got about a dozen right away, but that was more to have a set at our house and a set at my parents. Since then we've gradually given him another on random occasions. By Thanksgiving, he had most of the main characters, and those he didn't have, he used blocks of the same color in their place. But with Christmas, it was time for a boost to his collection. As a stocking stuffer, he got the already mentioned DJ, Boost, Wingo and Snotrod as stocking stuffers, and he finally got Luigi and Guido as stocking stuffers at my parents (they're smaller, so we're OK with him not having them at home since they're more likely to be a choking hazard for Sophie). Joanne's parents also got him a shake and go Dinoco Mcqueen.

He also finally got my favorite:

Did you see it? Did you see my favorite? It's at the 25 second mark. He appears for 3 seconds. He has no lines, no interaction with any of the main characters. But he's my favorite because we have "Meet the Cars".

His name is Dustin Mellows, a delivery truck, that inexplicably made into the book over DJ and friends. Even more inexplicable, he is one of 3 cars shown on the inside front cover of the book. So with that prominence in the book, Owen learned who he was and how to say his name. And if your toddler says something as cute as Lisa Simpson's third word, (sorry, couldn't find an adequate clip) well that would become your favorite too. It got to the point where I would ask Owen to do me a favor and his response would not be "what?", it would be "Dustin Mellows."

In the weeks leading up to Christmas, when we'd play with the Cars, he'd get everyone's favorite (Sally for him, Flo for Joanne (ultimate term!), Mater for my dad (fitting), Tex for my mom (her father worked with Texaco), Sheriff for Sophie (Black, white and a little red, fitting for an infant)), but would note we didn't have Dustin Mellows, so he assigned me McQueen as my second favorite. Although I knew the merchandise machine for Cars was huge, I didn't expect there to be something for Dustin. But low and behold, there was! And I happily purchased it on eBay. I initially remarked that it was the first present I purchased and it was for myself (from Owen), but then I came to my senses and realized it should be from Santa to Owen and me.

Two days before Christmas, we were playing in the driveway. He wanted to bring out his cars, and went racing inside to get them one at a time. We'd decide who's favorite would be next, then he went inside, got one car, came back outside (being sure to close the door), and put it in line with the others. When it was time for daddy's favorite, he again reminded us we didn't have Dustin Mellows, so he went inside to get McQueen for me. Little did he know what he was getting for Christmas: