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A mouse in the house

Henry's in love with a girl named Maisy. She's a curious sort, with funky polka-dot and striped clothing combinations that take me back to the days of Punky Brewster. She's quite social, has an adorable (albeit unfortunately large) nose. Her birthday is Feb. 10. And she even has her own television show.

Maisy is a mouse—a cartoon mouse created by Lucy Cousins, an acclaimed author-illustrator who lives and works in Hampshire, England. (And as far as I know, Dr. Dobson hasn't labeled Maisy as any sort of deviant misfit on a mission to turn children into delinquents. Although it's only a matter of time, I'm sure, seeing as how Maisy spends an awful lot of time with her "friend" Tallulah and often has rainbow-colored objects around her.)

My husband and I love Maisy, too. She's a happy, positive character who enjoys being around her eclectic group of friends. She celebrates the simple things in life. And she has a "security bear" named Panda, which reminds us of H's favorite beddybye bear, Rushmore—sent to him by his friend Tate in South Dakota.

She has great adventures, while teaching readers about numbers, colors, shapes, and so on. Plus, being in the publications business, Tim and I appreciate the font that the author uses for text. It's actually a font called "Lucy Cousins," created especially for this series of books.

Cousins' Maisy books have sold more than 12 million copies worldwide, and the made-for-TV cartoons air 9 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. seven days a week on the cable network NOGGIN. The noggin web site at www.noggin.com has printable Maisy cartoons for kids to color. Maisy's Fun Club web site, which you can check out by clicking on this post's headline, also features coloring, reading, and other fun kids' activities.

We're trying not to let H watch too many TV or DVD shows. Although, I think we might be too late, since he has learned to grab the remote control and the DVD case and bring them to us saying "ohdeeoh" (toddlerspeak translation: video). And we try not to get too exasperated when he's brought us the same book for the 15th time in a row, plopping in our laps and expecting us to read it...just one more time. We'll probably mess him up one way or another. But for now, I think if he's going to be influenced, might as well be by Maisy. She's a good critter.

(And I'm trying my hardest not to buy that $50 Maisy doll I saw at the mall last weekend.)

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