Eli is obsessed with the Pixar movie Cars. He requests it daily by saying “watch one with Ramone”.
He has also decided that we are all going to pretend to be cars, and he has assigned everyone a name from the movie. He drinks oil (milk) and gas (water).
Margot and he are Mia and Tia, Lightning McQueen’s “super fans”. Whenever he is introduced to someone new as Eli, he corrects us and says “I’m Tia”. When I call him Eli, he says “No, just Tia! We’re pretending to be cars!”
I was Doc for a short time, but now I’m “The Sherrif” (including “The”). Deirdre started off as Lightning McQueen, the hero of the story, but is now known only as “Regular Van”, Eli’s made-up name for “Mrs. The King”, a Chrysler Town and Country station wagon. Eli pronounces it “Legger Van”.
This has been going on for about 6 months and shows no signs of stopping. He refers to people by their Cars name no matter what you say:
Us: “We are going to see Daniel at the park today!”
Eli: “We’re going to see Lightning McQueen at the park today?”
In addition to Scooter Bear (“Scoo”), he rarely sleeps without at least one car. Chick Hicks is his favorite, but there are several to choose from: There’s Regular Chick Hicks, Moving Chick Hicks (his eyes move), Cake Chick Hicks (from Daniel’s birthday cake, sadly lost at “sandbox park”), Blue Chick Hicks, and Big Blue Chick Hicks. Each night, we sing a shortened version of several songs from the movie before Eli goes to sleep.
At least once a day, Eli says “Tia just wants to be Tia” as he tries to take off his diaper in order to lounge around the house in his birthday suit. “Can Tia just be Tia?” I forgot to mention that he exclusively refers to himself in the third person.
Eli, asking for water: “Could Tia have some gas?”
Me: “Can you ask nicely?”
Eli: “Could Tia have some gas… please?”
On the bright side, Cars is a good movie. It could be much, much worse (like Thomas or Bob the Builder).
[This was written (but not posted) a month ago. Regular Van and Tia got to see Cars 2, and it wasn't as well received as the original, but at least there's a fresh new source of names for everyone.]
