Super Why!

Shaelyn has never had a "lovey" item - she has not been attached to her blanket or any of her stuffed animals. I would say the closest thing she has to a security item is her paci. I've always loved seeing toddlers toting a blanket or stuffed animal wherever they go (for me it was my Care Bear), and wondered if Shaelyn would ever be attached to anything. She likes Elmo and Curious George, but her level of interest has been limited to books and DVDs, although she does really like the Elmo doll we got her.

Lately she's been really into this new PBS show called Super Why! It's all about letters and reading, and I think it's a big contributor to her knowing her ABC's. She's always been allowed to watch a video while eating breakfast and after her nap, and for a while the only request was Elmo. Then George. Then Cars. And even when a new favorite would emerge, the others would still occasionally be mentioned. Now there is only one request - SUPER!!!! Thank goodness I taped all the episodes I had saved off our DVR before I returned it.

So the Super Why! obsession reached a new high Thursday when I printed off some Super Why! coloring pages from the PBS website. I have never seen her more excited about anything. We colored them for a long time, but she finally tired of them and moved on to something else. Then right before bed she remembered that they were downstairs waiting for her. She escaped down the stairs to get them. I caught her and told her we could color them tomorrow, that it was time for bed. Hysterics ensued. Huge tears and through the sobs - "super, super, super!". So I decided that we could bring the pages upstairs and look at them like the pages of a book before bed. I was a little scared that she wouldn't want to let them go, but figured once we got in the bedtime routine, she'd give them up. No such luck. Michael was out of town, so I was all alone dealing with the "super" obsession and the obvious fact that she was not going to go to bed without the pages. So I let her keep the Super Why page and took all the others and hid them. She tucked the page over her like a blanket and snuggled up to go to sleep. I rock her to sleep, and as she was getting comfortable, the page kept crinkling. I was afraid it would keep her from going to sleep, but she fell asleep quickly, still clutching the page to her chest. But then I faced a new dilemma. Normally she sleeps soundly through the transfer from our lap on the rocking chair to her bed, but this time she was holding a crinkly paper, and I worried that when I moved her it would wake her up. Sure enough, crinkle crinkle, and then she was wide awake. It took her another hour to fall asleep after that, during which time she talked to her coloring page, hugged and kissed it, and screamed incessantly when I tried to take it from her (twice!). When she finally did fall asleep, I hid the page with the others and wondered what I was going to do for this new growing obsession.

Unfortunately, since Super Why! is still a new show, there are no products available for purchase - no DVDs or dolls or coloring books or anything. So running out to buy a Super Why doll she could hold to go to sleep that wouldn't crinkle and wake her up was out of the question. So I decided to do what every pioneer mom would do - I sewed her a Super Why doll. I was a little unsure she would know who it was, and even more unsure that it would suffice for a "lovey", but I figured it was worth a shot as I was not going to go through another crinkly night with a coloring page! I worked on it all day Friday (and stayed up very late Friday night), but I was happy with the results:The Super Why character is on the right in the green - his name is Whyatt, but when he becomes a superhero, he becomes Super Why.

Here's my version of Super Why. I've never sewn a doll before, or anything that is stuffed, so it was a bit tricky for me, but I think he looks a lot like the real character. I'm still a novice at sewing, so I'm grateful that my friend Kelly has been so patient with me teaching me how to use my borrowed sewing machine and how the basic mechanics of sewing work. My mom taught be some basics when I was still living at home, but those had all but left me by the time I decided I wanted to learn to sew again earlier this year.


Kelly has also taught me basic embroidery, which is how I was able to finish Super Why's superhero emblem on his chest and his smile.

Here he is from the side - it turned out a little blurry and it's hard to see his cape, but you get an idea of how thick he is.

Here he is from the back. I love his little "bloomers". His cape is only sewn at the top, so it can blow in the breeze.

I sewed the head, body, shoes, and hands as separate pieces, turned them right-side out, and stuffed them. It was fairly easy to attach the shoes and hands to the body, but the head was a definite challenge. I didn't create a neck, because the character on the show doesn't have one, but once the head and body were stuffed, I needed something like a neck to give me some room to sew them together. I had to rip out the seam and start over with the head 3 different times, and even still I'm not that happy with it. Because of the way I had to attach the two pieces, the head won't stay up - it flops forward or back. If I had it to do all over again, I would have created a neck that I inserted all the way into the body of the doll, but it would have given me something substantial to attach the with. Oh, well.

I was so excited to give the doll to Shaelyn this morning (Saturday). I didn't know how she'd react, if she would even recognize it, but I was hoping that it would be the fix for her obsession. I asked Michael to video tape when I gave it to her, but I told him I had no expectations. I just wanted the moment captured on video in case her reaction was cute or excited. Here it is:

Then she had to take him for a ride:

Super Why did not leave her side all day. She took him to gymnastics with her this morning (we told her he had to stay with our shoes - he needed a nap), outside to play (he got a little sandy from the sandbox and a little wet from me and Michael spraying the hose), to the grocery store, and of course, watching an episode of Super Why!. She even held up the doll to the t.v. as if to show him himself on t.v. She also tried to feed him a grape. She successful took a nap with him and is now currently sleeping with him right now. I think Super Why is going to nursery with her tomorrow.

Enjoying juice and her doll while watching her favorite show.

Hugging Super Why at the grocery store.

I love that she loves the doll. It makes all my effort to create it worth it. And now even when they finally do start selling Super Why dolls, I don't think we'll be buying one. After all, Shaelyn's is one of a kind!