Gruffalo: The (Short) Movie

5 months on, and Spud is still hooked on The Gruffalo, and now, we have "upgraded" her addiction to the one with audio-visual aid.

Actually, not too long after The Gruffalo was first introduced to us, we started scouring the Internet (in search for the cute plush toy and to date, still observing a very high self-restraint of not buying it online!), and then stumbled on its official website. From the website on , being the geek that Silver Bullet is, he then started scouring for a video version of the book.

Not too long later, he actually managed to find a high-def  version of the 26-minutes movie and was all so excited about his find - so excited that I started wondering who was more excited - Spud or Silver Bullet!

Needless to say, Spud loves it, and was hooked on it in no time at all. In fact, it was the only thing that gets her to sit still at one spot for a whole 10 minutes. And because of its "magical powers", it became The Thing we use to keep her quiet for about two weeks - be it meal times, or just so she'd stay at one spot.  So for two weeks, day-in, day-out, we watched Gruffalo several times a day.

BIG MISTAKE.

Before long, Spud started to throw temper tantrums when she did not get to watch The Gruffalo at her whims and fancy at any time of the day. Realising the monster we had unwittingly unleashed, we decided to take steps  to remedy it before it was too late. It then took us a few days to condition her that, no,  she does not get to watch The Gruffalo whenever she demands for it. She watches it only when her parents allow her too.

Since then, The Gruffalo has been a part of Spud's bedtime routine - we only allow her to watch it at the end of the day, after her evening shower and before she brushes her teeth. Now, The Gruffalo is like a cue for her to go to bed, and as soon as it reaches towards the end of the movie, she starts saying bye and waves goodbye to the TV!

All it took was a lot of consistency (in distracting her into other things besides The Gruffalo),  resilience and not giving in (to her tantrums). It was a little hard work from our part doing all those things with a lot of restraint, and telling her that yes, she can watch The Gruffalo, and only before bedtime, but in the end, it worked.

We could only let out a serious sigh of relief when she started to get it after.

I have to tell you though, the movie is brilliant! All the details that went into that animation is just amazing. Silver Bullet had tried to change to another movie (The Lion King) to give her a little bit more of variety during bedtime, but Spud just would not have any of it and cried bloody murder the moment she saw a different opening scene.

We have not missed a day without watching it so far, and I shamelessly admit that even I enjoy that little skit!

The whole Gruffalo thing is just super awesome. So awesome that I am afraid I may not be able to restrain myself any longer from getting that darn cute toy!