Things Henry Likes: Barney, Thomas & Elmo

Our last posting made us think of all the new characters Henry has embraced. He took a liking to Barney early on, and the purple dinosaur has only grown more popular with each new book, DVD or CD we purchase. Henry’s favorite DVD is The Best of Barney, and we can now sing most of the Barney songs by heart. In fact, Henry has been known to ride his trike around the neighborhood singing “I Love You” at the top of his tiny lungs. A close second in popularity is Thomas the Train. Henry discovered Thomas only recently, but he has quickly skyrocketed in popularity. Henry received a Thomas cake and several Thomas books and toys for his birthday. And his Thomas pajamas are definitely his favorite, so much so that he once insisted on wearing the top all day. Other popular characters include Elmo, Cookie Monster, Mickey Mouse and Nemo. Mom and dad are partial to Thomas, if only because the episodes are only 10 minutes long and involve no singing. There is only so many times you can hear Barney sing “Clean Up,” “Apples and Bananas,” or “Looby Loo” before you start to go a little crazy. And according to this report on the BBC, the Barney theme song has been used by American interrogators to break the will of Iraqi insurgents. The insurgents never had a chance.