Ever since you were able to sit up on your own you have loved to bounce. Whenever you hear music – the pipes and drums of the school band, songs on the radio – you happily bounce up and down.
That’s why it seems entirely appropriate that your first word (uttered this morning in the presence of both your parents, so there can be no mistake) was Tigger. After all, bouncing is what Tiggers do best.
I seem to remember that the Tigger you were talking about, your toy Tigger, looks like the Tigger drawn by a man called Ernest Shepard who painted pictures and illustrated books for a living.
Some of these books were written by a man called A A Milne and were about a little boy called Christopher Robin, his teddy bear Pooh and their friends and adventures.
Tigger made his first appearance, I think, in a book called House at Pooh Corner, where we learned that Tiggers don’t like honey, haycorns or thistles for breakfast and, indeed, that Tiggers don’t climb trees.
The newer Tigger – the one you will probably get to know even better – is like the original Tigger only more so. Stripier, orangier, bouncier. He appears in a series of Disney cartoons and in order to make lots of money, people did deals with each other so that toys and clothes and plates and lots of stuff could be made with pictures of this Tigger on and sold to Mummies and Daddies and Aunties and Uncles to give to their children.
But I still like the original Tigger best. How about you?
