Tic-Tac-Totoro

I finally finished Max's tic-tac-toe game! This is why I was making all those Totoros and cat busses. I got the idea from my latest Japanese craft book (more on that soon, I'm working on posting all my books like others have recently done). They had a board with rabbits and carrots. I thought Totoro would be a good idea, since Max is very much into Tonari no Totoro (My Neighbor Totoro). At first I was going to do Totoros and acorns (since they like acorns), but then I decided cat busses would be more fun than acorns. However, my first attempt at a cat bus wasn't quite right. I think it does look like a cat bus, but only if you already know what a cat bus looks like. (Those of you who haven't seen the movie are probably thinking "what on earth is a cat bus?" It's kind of like a stretch cat with many legs, that is also a bus. Totoros and small children can ride inside. Totoros are some sort of forest creature.) So I scaled back and went with just a cat face.

I was just reading the IMDB trivia on this movie, and I learned that "Totoro" comes from Mei mispronouncing "to-ro-ru", or troll. It says that this is explained in the Japanese language version, but not the English. I think that Totoro is much cuter than any troll I've ever seen in any storybooks.

So here's what happened when the game was presented to Max. I explained that you needed to get three across to win. He seemed to accept that. So we played an easy game, where we each just put three down in a row and didn't interfere with each other. He liked that. This picture shows what happens when dad tries to put his piece in Max's row to block his three-across. Max just picked it up and put it back in dad's row! Ha! We didn't get to try much more because it was already past bedtime.

Comments

[Carabeth]

Silly Dad!!What a fun piece! and easy to roll up and bring places?

[myra]

Wonderful!!!! That is such a great idea and your nekobus came out so cute! Did you use velcro on the backs of the pieces so you can hang it too?

[susanne]

I love it! Great job on the whole deal--cat bus cracks me up :) That Max is pretty wily.

[Amanda]

In Steve's defense, I have to say that it was at my urging that he put a piece in Max's row. I wanted to see what would happen! As for velcro: no, I didn't. The set in the book used velcro, but I thought that felt was naturally sticky enough that it didn't need it just for a tic-tac-toe game. But I hadn't thought about using it for a wall-hanging, that's a good idea...

Here's a great link I got from Hanna: a real cat bus! That would be something that would either scare Max or we wouldn't be able to get him off it.

[Sandra]

OMG this is SO cute! I absolutely love this.