Llama Llama, Oh the Drama

I hope none of y'all are getting tired of my children's books. Remember I told you that it was one of my fetishes. The Llama Llama series by Anna Dewdney has a special place in my heart. I've always called my own mom Mama Llama and my kids call her Grandma Mama Llama. I know, it's kind of bizarre, but I have a tendency to give people weird names. If you stick around, you'll get used to it.

Back to the books though, since that's why I'm here today. The first book pictured is Llama Llama Red Pajama. As you can imagine, this book has a lot of rhyming, which is great for pre-readers and new readers (or people with children's book fetishes).

Another aspect of this book that makes it so appealing to kids is that Llama Llama is immature and self-centered, as kids are naturally, so kids can relate and even see the humor in their own temper tantrums. Or not. Like maybe not when you're taking pictures of them while they're on the floor freaking out and you're maybe telling them to kick a little bit to make their tantrum more effective. Not that I would do that.

There's something in these books for the parents too, as we can relate to Mama Llama's exasperation. My favorite page in this book is when Mama Llama snaps and yells at Llama Llama, "Baby Llama, what a tizzy! Sometimes Mama's very busy. Please stop all this llama drama and be patient for your mama." Why just yesterday, I was telling Thing 1 that if she called me in to "help" her one more time, my head was going to pop off and fly around the room.

So I'm definitely relating to the Mama Llama. In fact, I was a little too excited when the next book in the series came out, Llama Llama Mad at Mama.

Isn't his little grumpy face so cute? This story is about going shopping with Mama Llama. Oh, the torture. Shopping is torture for kids. I remember the torture from my own childhood very clearly. Hanging on my Mama Llama in a dressing room, whining while she tried on clothes for what seemed like hours. Kids generally make shopping very unpleasant, that's been my experience, so now I have a little empathy for my mom. I'm just a little bit sorry too, for all my own llama drama. Sorry, Mama Llama.