Absolutely nothing to do with royals or weddings.

Why every child needs a toy bigger than they are

I have a strong memory from my childhood of visiting my Grandparents and playing with a GIANT teddy bear called Boo-boo.

The main thing I remember was that Boo-boo was big enough to use as a mattress (which we frequently did), so it was rather a surprise when I went back to my Grandparents as an adult and discovered Boo-boo had shrunk, I lamented his diminutive status, but fondly recalled how my brother and I used to lie on Boo-boo as we watched Christmas telly.

A few years ago I was shopping with Tareka on a rare day out without the children, and as it was getting close to Easter, we were sort of looking for Easter-based snack items to bribe the children with when I spotted them.  Giant bunnies.  Pink and purple bunnies which were bigger than our children.  I was immediately transported back to the halcyon days of Grimsby sunshine and Boo-boo the bear.

I looked at Tareka.  He looked at me and sighed.  He knows the look I get when I see something so utterly pointless and crap that I simply have to buy or I will sink into a pit of depression only remedied by the application of metric tons of chocolate and promises of lie-ins.

“you want to buy the bunnies, don’t you”

“YES!”

“they are enormous”

“Yes, and they are pink and purple, they are PERFECT!”

“why do you want to buy the bunnies?”

“because every child should have at least one toy that is bigger than them”

We bought the bunnies, and they have become the girls’ favourite toy.  They dress them up and ride them around the living room.  They go in the car if we are staying overnight anywhere and they live in their beds at other times.

Hakopa’s first proper Easter has rolled around, the one where he is finally old enough to get the whole “chocolate eggs for breakfast” thing.  I wanted to get him a giant toy of his own, so I set out on a mission.  For some reason there were no giant bunnies to be had 1 week out from Easter, what utter nonsense that is I don’t know.  BUT there were giant lions, dogs, unicorns, elephants and monkeys.

Guess which one I bought?