The Dietary Habits of Rhinoceri

Our two-year-old loves Fisher-Price Little People. This does not surprise me; I used to love them, too. They're different now, though, from when my sisters and/or cousins and I used to drive the round-headed figures around the Tinker Toy streets of our family-room sized town. Now, many of the people and their associated play sets come with VHS tapes introducing the multi-ethnic characters, ascribing to them personalities and interests. Sonya Lee loves animals; Michael is the intrepid inventor. It's both a little more interesting--and a bit stifling of creativity. But it's better than video games.

One of the things she loves the most about the videos are the songs which encapsulize in 16 seconds or so what each Little Person is about. The one that comes immediately to mind goes something like this:

Discovering Sonya
Who's gentle and true.
She's kind to people
And animals, too.
Discovering Sonya
And me and you.

She sings these songs constantly while she plays with her little people, taking a dozen of them for a ride in the green fishing boat I used to play with as a girl or piling them into a school bus for a ride around the dining room.

Two nights ago just before bedtime, she and I were playing with her peeps on the couch. I picked one I didn't recognize up and invented a little ditty about it to the tune of the Little People Anthem. Then she handed me another, saying, "Now this one!"

We went through the whole posse of children and beasts that were inhabiting the center cushion before coming to the final one. It wasn't technically a Little Person, but it was a member of the crew, so she insisted I make up a song for this one, too. It was a rhino.

Now, I don't know a whole lot about rhinos. In fact, I don't think I know anything about them. Do birds live on their back and pick nits off of them? At any rate, that's not an easy factoid about which to sing. And I'd already created eight or so songs, so coming up with something unique was going to be tough. I started with what I saw...

Discovering Rhino
Who's big and fat...

I paused for a moment, and then went on...

He likes to eat...

What does he like to eat? I had no idea. Had to go with the first rhyme that popped into my head...

Kitty cats.
Discovering Rhino
And you and me!

We both burst into laughter. I think it was the first time she'd really gotten a joke. She made me sing it six or seven more times, and by the fifth repetition, her lips were quivering with withheld laughter before I'd even finished crooning the first line.

She ran to the basement to sing it for Daddy, but it wasn't quite the same. And I was glad. It was our first private joke, and I wanted to keep it that way.