Desperately Seeking A 12-Step Program For "Cars"

Owen, for as long as he's been able to communicate with us, has been obsessed with something.

First, when he could just about hold his head up, it was spinning things -- he couldn't get enough of anything that spun around, like tops or balls or toys or really anything that spun. Next it was balls - every time we went to the store we came back with another ball, to the point where we had an entire toybox filled with them.

Next came his interest in TV. From there we had a brief stint with Baby Einstein videos, then Elmo's World, then Thomas the Tank Engine. Thomas lasted the longest, and is still a favorite, but in the last 6 months has been edged out by the Pixar movies. First came Toy Story, then Toy Story II, then A Bug's Life, and now Cars. Yup, pretty much any of the Pixar movies.

Now, everybody has their favorite things, and I love that he has interests. What drives me crazy is how highly interested he gets in something ... until he loses interest entirely. Case in point: our toybox filled with balls. It's now filled with both balls AND dust.

With the movies it's a whole other form of intense obsession. He wants to do nothing else but watch the movie of the moment -- it's been Cars for weeks now, so I'm hoping for a new one soon -- wear clothes with the characters on them, play with action figures from the movies and recreate the stories out loud. It's actually hilarious, because now that he's almost four and speaking pretty clearly, he's able to literally memorize a movie from start to finish and actually act it out.

Toddler obsessions are completely normal - I know that. But someone should really come up with a way for parents not to go completely batty in the meantime.

Because, seriously, I'm not sure I'm up for too many more showings of Cars . Poor Owen has been home with pink-eye for the past two days and has watched the damn thing about a dozen times. And, to be honest, that Mater is starting to really creep me out.