Since watching the movie Cars, and I use the word “watching” loosely here to mean having your parents pay $5 to get you into a matinee so you can rotate between the theatre and the restroom like a pinball and accidentally bonk into your brother multiple times as you hop from seat to seat while the movie is playing, Laylee has been obsessed with red cars.
Every red car is a LITE-MEEN THE QUEEN CAR! It can be a truck, an SUV, a Datsun or a flippin’ Vespa. If it’s red, then it’s Lightning McQueen, the red race car from the Cars movie and it RULES, period. It requires a point and a scream of, “MAMA LOOK. LOOK. LOOK! IT’S A LITE-MEEN THE QUEEN CAR!”
Me:Â oh…wow.
Laylee: Did you see it? Did you see it mama?
Me: um… yeah. wow. that was really COOL.
Laylee: Too bad. You missed it, I think. OH OH OH! LOOK MAMA LOOK. ANOTHER LITE-MEEN THE QUEEN CAR! [smugly] You missed it again.
Me:Â No, I saw it.
Laylee:Â Why did you miss it?
Me:Â Because I was driving.
Laylee: I’m very disappointed in that. OH LOOOOOOK! MAAAMMMAAAA!
Do you know how many red cars are out there? Red trucks? Large redish bicycles? MANY, MANY, MANY.
I think it is so cute the first 800 times she does it each car trip, but by the end, as my enthusiasm drops off and she starts disbelieving that I have working eyes in my head because I’m not flipping out with joy that there is YET. ANOTHER. RED. LITE. MEEN. THE. QUEEN. CAR. on the road, it drives me a little batty.
Today she stepped it up a notch. Not only did she point out each car of the beloved skin color, but she would point out the same car multiple times. At one point we were driving for about 20 minutes on a curvy road behind a brown van. In front of the van was a LMTQC! So every time the road curved and the car became visible, the yelling the questions, the “too bad you missed it mama.”
What I’m worried about now is that she’ll point one out in a parking lot as someone is exiting their vehicle. I can picture it now.Â
Dan takes Laylee to the grocery store, a well-known hotbed of LMTQCs. Laylee looks over at the muscular guy with the concealed weapon that’s just unconcealed enough to show that he means business, getting out of his red monster F-150. She yells LOOK IT’S A LITE-MEEN THE QUEEN CAR. The dude hears her. “Your kid calling this a queen car? You think you’re better than me skinny boy?” Too bad I’m not with Dan in this day dream. I do have a yellow belt, as you all know.
It reminds me of the summer my family drove through Sturgis, South Dakota in early August when tens of thousands of bikers descend on the city for the Sturgis Motor Cycle Rally and Races. We hadn’t seen that much black leather in all of our short little Canadian lives put together. It was AMAZING. We couldn’t understand why my mom tried to shush us from pointing, staring and yelling “LOOK MOM. IT’S ANOTHER BIKER!”
Having loved CARS, I find this hilarious! I can totally relate to the repetive nature of…well, too many things to name! I’m enjoying your blog.
DYM- you have outdone yourself! I can picture that whole scene between Dan and the muscular guy! A queen car! BWAH!
I could take ‘im.
She’s funny.
E names cars after the Thomas the Tank Engine Trains. Our MItsubishi is Percy and our van is Lady. Whenever we get in someone else’s car, he asks what its name is. When there isn’t a name, he gives it one.
Nice new site, my friend.
In my house, it’s Whitemean Makeem. And I am OVER it! We didn’t really see the movie, either. It was Bugaboo’s first theater experience and I spent the whole time trying to keep him off the gooey floor.
You totally crack me up! I love your blog and will be back for sure!!
My kids loved watching the movie, too. Then in California Adventure got the meet Lightning and Mater and that was the absolute best!!
That reminds me of when my daughter discovered the “slug bug!” and they you get a punch in the arm game. Then when PT Cruisers came out, it was “bruiser cruiser!” with a punch. Do you know how many VW bugs, and PT Cruisers there are out there? Yeah, I put a stop to that real quick!
She is adorable. We only made it through 3/4 of the movie have to rent it and see how it comes out. He was doing rather well repairing the road when we left. I was pretty impressed as were those towns people LOL.
Yes, I have the same experience with helicopters. Every helicopter is Harold the Helicopter from Thomas the Train, and every plane is the plane we flew on to go to Disneyland. Her new thing is spotting every purple or pink house that we drive by which surprisingly there are quite a few in our area.
Nice. I love her smugness that you never see the cars. Duh, Mom. What are you THINKING?