A Clue, A Clue!

One day before Henry was born, Ed and I were in the car and out of nowhere, I turned and asked him..."How are we going to know what kid's tv shows for Henry to watch?". It had been so long since I had really been around kids, I knew there was a world of cartoons and live characters wearing bright colors out there...but I didn't know a Barney from a Teletubbie from a Backyardigan. Kind of funny now, the question really is, what is NOT right for him to watch. One of the shows that he, and we, settled on very early was Blue's Clues. If you aren't familiar, Steve, and then in later episodes, his "little brother" Joe, have a dog named Blue. Every episode she (Blue) has something of interest to tell Steve/Joe, and I guess because of her lack of ability to talk (I'm not sure why this is such an impossibility since she can "skidoo"...the ability to jump in and out of books and paintings) she leaves clues, in the form of a blue paw print, on various objects. After Steve/Joe finds and collects 3 of these clues, each of which he draws in his notebook, he sits in his thinking chair to "think, think, think". As I've mentioned earlier one of Henry's favorite possessions is his very own Handy Dandy Notebook and often loves sitting in his very own thinking chair (mini leather club chair) during the show and follows along by drawing his own clues.

Then one day I realized that he lives in his VERY OWN virtual episode of Blue's Clues. Let me explain. We live in Lexington, home of the University of Kentucky. As you probably know, the mascot of UK is a Wildcat. And as you might expect Lexington is very proud of the Cats, so the University, retail stores, students and fans love showing their support by displaying various paraphernalia with big "UK" letters, sometimes just a big capital "K", or, sometimes...a big blue paw print...OR in Henry's world, A CLUE!

We'll be driving around town and from the back seat I hear..."A clue, a clue!". Looking around I'll find one...


...on a campus banner, or...


...on the front of the bookstore, or...


...on a freebie magnet from a bank, or...


...an "official" paw print, or...


...even sometimes (at home) even the unfortunate bleach stain on our duvet cover.

Other times we'll be on a walk and he'll spot one on the front license plate or the worst, on someone's shirt or hat and it usually takes me until we've already passed the person to figure out why Henry is pointing gregariously at that person, and why they are kind of looking at me trying to figure out the same thing.

At this point Henry will whip out his notebook and "draw" his clue.


I don't see UK changing their mascot anytime soon...so this game could go forever.