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When Lyons Cub was a baby, he used to have a dinosaur rocker, and with the continuous help of Early Intervention and patient support by Nanny Nancy and his mommy, he learned to sit and rock on it. While the dino was at a height suitable for babies up to one year, we were looking for a more advanced rocker. One day, we went to the antique store Warehouse Forty One in Clarksville, TN, where we had already found many useful antiques, such as a bathroom stool for brushing my son’s teeth, used baby puzzles, a Paw Patrol tent and tunnel, books, CD’s, toy dinosaurs, etc. And all in the corner in the back of the right isle, we found a brown plush rocking horse. It was supposed to have sound, but that feature didn’t exist anymore (big sigh of relief from mommy!).
The horse was the perfect size for a 1.5-year-old toddler, and it was only 12 bucks, if I remember right, so it went with us that day. What I like about it is that it looks quite realistic, has nice, soft fur, and has a very good rocking motion (we tried it out, of course). Here’s an image rendered with “hyperbolic tiling” of little Lyons Cub riding his horsey:
Lyons Cub is into the Yakari book series right now (one of his two good-night stories always has to be a Yakari adventure), so it’s only natural that he is Yakari and his plush rocking horse is “Kleiner Donner” (Little Thunder). In the video below, he is searching for his girlfriend, Regenbogen (Rainbow), but his horse gets stuck in the mud and he shouts for help. He’s pretty good at pretend play already. You’ll notice he’s bilingual, because sometimes, he talks in German, and then he switches to English. That’s because he talks English with mommy and German with grandma, and when we’re both there, he mixes them. He’s so used to that already, I hope he can keep his languages apart when he starts school.
If you also like the looks of plush rocking horses as compared to the more traditional wooden rocking horses, here are some suggestions in different sizes and colors. (And if you’re also not a fan of hearing neighing sounds all day long, you can either get a horse without voice or switch it off…)
Jon walked by & heard/saw Lyon Cub & immediately knew who he was! We are all very impressed with his bilingual abilities.
I remember how he said “Tony” way before “Nancy” 😉