Julia spent the night at Dave’s mother’s on Sunday, so Oliver and I lazed around on Monday morning before we got dressed and went shopping. We played with his Lightning McQueen cars when we came home, one of his favourite things to do. He’s on a Cars streak right now; Lightning McQueen is all the rage and he plays with his cars, the ones I picked up at Liquidation Depot and gave him for Valentine’s Day, on and off all day. He carries them in a small plastic racecar-shaped case that his Lightning McQueen underwear came in. He sleeps with them. He knows them by name.
He knew that Leak Less, a.k.a. The Yellow Car, was missing, and had been for a day or so, but he kept it on the back burner of his mind. It didn’t seem to bother him much at all, the missing car, though every now and then he’d get a burst of concern and search the usual haunts – the toy box, the wash stand in the dining room, the closet in the den – without luck or lasting interest. But while we were playing I mentioned that Leak Less was missing and it was as though he’d just realized the car was gone. Finding Leak Less immediately became his driving concern, the hot issue.
We looked, both of us, all over the downstairs, to no avail. Oliver may be rough with his toys but he’s not careless with them, especially his McQueen cars, and I wanted to find it for him just as much as he wanted me to. I was surprised when it didn’t turn up; Oliver was more concerned than upset.
Dave’s mum brought Julia home after dinner and as Dave watched them pull in the driveway and get out of the car he saw Julia had balloons, and we both groaned because balloons always seem to set the kids right off. The fact that the balloons were paired with other exciting things such as Julia coming home, Grammie and Papa coming in for a visit and them bringing not only balloons but homemade bunny cookies with them meant it was kind of mild pandemonium over here for a while that night.
They both had a hard time settling; Julia appeared pouty-faced in the kitchen several times after we’d tucked her in with such ailments as intense thirst, a bad taste in her mouth and an itchy belly and by the time Oliver finally fell asleep it was after nine.
Tired, Dave and I flopped on the couch to watch Deal or No Deal and when I got up to go to the bathroom I saw Oliver’s bag of Lightning McQueen cars on the end table and immediately thought of Leak Less.
“Hey, we’re missing a car,” I said to Dave as I walked past him. “Leak Less. The yellow one.”
“Okay,” he said. “I’ll look for it.”
“We looked all over for it today but we couldn’t find it,” I called from the bathroom. “We’ve gotta find it. We have all the other ones, Nitro Ade, Lightning McQueen, The King, Vinyl Toupee, Octane Gain, No Stall, HTB…”
I trailed off and laughed to myself then, because if someone had told me five years ago that I’d know all the characters from a kid’s racecar movie by name I would have guffawed in disbelief – aside from a few specific flicks, I was never that keen on children’s movies. Yet in the last five years I’ve found myself growing quite fond of kids’ movies and not only do I really like the movie Cars, I know some of it by heart and have been known to, unabashedly, tear up at certain parts.
Which I think makes me all the more determined – I won’t stop looking until Leak Less is found.
34 Comments, Comment or Ping
That’s not so bad, knowing kids movie “trivia”. My downfall is the Backyardigans, I find the music annoyingly catchy and the shows full of some hidden humor for the parents (either that or I have a twisted mind?).
I got to get some of those Cars underwear for the boy though….
March 12th, 2008
Ah Cars…. one of the top 3 in our house… I feel your pain and I hope you find it SOON!
March 12th, 2008
The Quest To Find Leak Less. Hmm. Has a certain ring to it.
March 12th, 2008
I’ve never seen Cars.
I had to make that its own paragraph because when you mentioned Oliver’s underwear bag, followed immediately by the name “Leak Less”, my mind went to rubber pants, and then downhill from there.
Seriously, Leak Less Underwear? Where does your mind go?
March 12th, 2008
You know … no matter how many gender neutral items I obtain for my son, he always gravitates toward the BOY! items … cars, trucks, school buses, etc. What is that?
But then I comfort myself that at least it won’t be Disney Princesses, right?
March 12th, 2008
Cars is great. My son fell asleep on my tummy for over a year watching Finding Nemo. I usually fell asleep too. Owww heart.
March 12th, 2008
My boy has only recently left his Cars phase. One of the few of his movies I am happy to watch over and over. Hope Leak Less is found soon …
March 12th, 2008
Hope you find LL soon!
My son has Cars bedsheets and they have a typo on them. Lightning McQueen is the “rookin” of the year. I have wasted a lot of time letting this bug me!
March 12th, 2008
you know, every time i see that deal or no deal show i want to stomp on someone (hey, look at my violence) the stupidity of greed – they always blow it. always.
sorry, sidebar.
March 12th, 2008
i have GOT to watch this movie.
i keep hearing it’s an awesome one.
i hope you guys find Leak Less soon!
:-D
♥
March 13th, 2008
Yeah, Cars is big in our house too – we’ve got the collection of cars (including Leak Less, he is known as “Yellow Piston Cup Racer”); Lightning McQueen underwear, wall posters, colouring books, sneakers, clothes…
I just realized how much Cars-branded memoribilia we’ve bought in the last two years.
*sigh*
March 13th, 2008
ok- i love cars. i also tear up at several points during the flick. it is awesome.
balloons- we had a balloon incident yesterday too. lets just say that one of the girls came out looking like she’d been in a boxing ring.
March 13th, 2008
… and the really good movies are yet to come. The Iron Giant. The Dark Crystal. The Goonies. I can hardly wait.
March 13th, 2008
My bf has a boy and she speaks that same secret language. In the beginning our kids were just the same but now its a whole other world of ‘guys’ aka superheroes and cars.
March 13th, 2008
How do you do that crossing the words out thing that you do??
GP x
March 13th, 2008
My son loved the Toy Story movies and had an obsession with Buzz Light Year. We had every type of Buzz you could imagine. They all looked the same to me, but he knew which was which, even the duplicate ones he could identify who gave it to him and when. His favorite is what we called “Little Buzz”. This treasure was his favorite Buzz and went everywhere he went. Little Buzz was lost and found countless times. I’m sure you’ll find Leaks Less.
March 13th, 2008
An itchy belly– hahahaha! That is cute.
I know. The things you realize you know. I find myself singing all the kid show songs. Oy. But Wyatt has just discovered INDIANA JONES!!! Yipee!! I can handle that. He was so cute when he saw that “Hann Solo” was Indiana. Oh boy, that bloggled his mind! lol
:)
March 13th, 2008
You’re my new best friend. We need to get Jerri out of that dysfunctional relationship with her sister, at least professionally!
Love your site!
Carrie
March 13th, 2008
Good luck!
I’m actually kinda looking forward to Graham getting into movies – I suspect some of those kids flicks are pretty cool.
March 13th, 2008
Have you checked under the couch and near the toilet? Those were where all my brothers’ toys ended up. Good luck!!
March 13th, 2008
Yer a good mama. and if leak less = freak less, i’d look hard for it too.
btw – daylight savngs wreaked havoc at our place this week too.
March 13th, 2008
Let us know when the lost becomes found.
March 13th, 2008
I remember that stage.
Except for me and my kids it was all about Toy Story and Buzz Lightyear…
Sniff. I miss those days….
March 13th, 2008
My son doesn’t know Cars yet, but he’s well versed in bob the Builder, Dora and Diego. I never knew I could know so many names and songs for things i don’t really care for at all!
March 13th, 2008
I hope you find it soon. :)
We lost “blue mousie” in Mexico and still are still talking about him. Every. Flipping. Day!!!!
UGH!
March 13th, 2008
Honey…the only thing worse than remembering all those names would be if you could remember all the verses to the theme from “Gilligan’s Island”. Like me. Oh…the shame.
March 13th, 2008
One day I’ll tell you about a specific My Little Pony loss. May Leak Less be found soon.
March 14th, 2008
..but why do I think diapers when I read the name Leak Less? Why MT why?
March 14th, 2008
I was actually really surprised at how little reaction I got when Sally, beloved doggie #1 from among the kennel of 5, went missing. Maybe it was because we knew she was somewhere in the house, but Pumpkinpie seemed oddly okay for two or three days before she was found. Glad to read on next post that LL was found, though. Phew!
March 14th, 2008
I’m really tired because I read “Leak Less” as “Loch Ness”. I do, however, know the names of far too many cartoon characters…
March 14th, 2008
in the cushions, buried deep. you will find your missing car. Look for it there.
There is meaning in this…
March 15th, 2008
Ah, the Cars cars. As I sit right now, the Dinoco versions of the King, Chick Hicks and McQueen are right next to me. We have every car we can find – the other day, I was more excited than the boys when my husband found Ghostlight Ramone!!
Our current lost one? Lizzie.
Good luck finding yours. Did you check under the fridge?
March 16th, 2008
OMG, I fucking obsess about that kind of thing.
March 25th, 2008
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