What Toddler Rave DJ Lenny Pearce’s Kids Can’t Live Without

Yes, they’re for changing diapers, but we also use them for wiping hands, wiping down tables, wiping up spills, and cleaning up in the car. Surely I’m not the only one who does that. They work well, and they don’t irritate the kids’ skin, and they won’t damage any paint on the walls or whatever. I’m not really like, “Huggies is the only thing that we’ll use,” but I think there’s something about them that saves us time thinking. You know that it works, then you move on.

My stepson had a bunny stuffie growing up, and my wife loved the idea of getting our daughter into bunnies, too. So we bought the Jellycat one. We didn’t know about Jellycat when we bought it — we just thought,This one’s really nice and floppy. And then we came to realize thatJellycat’s, like, a really prestigious teddy brand. I think we’ve replacedthe pink one, like, four or five times. She just lost it, but she needs that bunny, and she wants all the colors. So we’ve got all the different colors andlittle keychain ones.

We’ve got about maybe nine variations ofthese interactive books. My 3-year-old daughter likes all the little dials and slides to play with in each of them. She likes the airplane one most right now because I got it from the airport on a recent trip. She knows that whenever I go away, I always come back with a book. So now she connects me going on a trip or on an airplane with getting a new book.

Last year, my son, daughter, and stepson came with me on my U.S. tour and we all stayed on the tour bus for two months. The idea sounds very fun, but it was very hard. There were diapers and bottles everywhere. My son was 6 months old at the beginning of the tour and was napping every two or three hours on the bus, sometimes in the middle of winter blizzards. When you’re driving from the East to the West Coast, the time is constantly changing and so is your schedule. One thing we bought for the trip was a baby bouncer because there’s nowhere really to put your baby on the bus. It’s free-roaming, basically. So we had him on that quite a lot on the bed because if the bus stopped, everyone would fly forward and my wife would get freaked out about it. That was the thing we used the most that whole trip.

My daughter hated the pacifier, but my son loves it. He juggles them and twists them and they glow in the dark, too, which is very helpful. It holds the glow throughout the night. If he’s searching for a pacifier in the crib, I can see them, so when we go in there at night, I don’t have to turn on all the lights. Also, it feels like a toddler rave.

Toy Storyhas saved us a lot. My son loves Disney movies, specificallyToy Story.And I lovedToy Storygrowing up, so I like to think maybe he’s an exact copy of me. Mainly, he likes the first movie; I think he’s watched it, like, 6,000 times. Now we’re watching other things, butToy Storywas a big pillar of the family for a long time and such a saving grace, especially being on the road and at airports and waiting on the tarmac and stuff. My daughter didn’t connect withToy Storyas much as my son. She is much more intoPeppa Pigand will say stuff like, “I wanna get a tent and have ten girls sleep over,” because Peppa had a big sleepover party in one episode. She’ll get concepts from there, and we’re like, “We never even taught you about tents or sleepovers.” She said she wants roller skates because inPeppa Pigshe’s on roller skates and Daddy Pig’s holding her hand, so she wants to do that too.

Our daughter used this straw cup when she was younger, and we liked it so much that when it came time for our son to learn to use a straw, we went right back to the same one. The straw is weighted at the bottom so he can drink water at any angle. And it never leaks, except when he throws it across the room and the little flip-down part of the lid comes off. It helps him drink more water, which is the goal.

He loves to hold anything that looks like a stick. For a while, he was obsessed with wooden spoons, holding them and waving them around like a sword. It wasn’t a teething thing; it’s more that he loved holding it up like he’s the king. He could have the most interesting toy, but if there’s something that’s like a stick or something that he can wave around, he will choose that.

My 12-year-old stepson loves FIFA soccer and my daughter sees him loving it, so she likes soccer now too. We have heaps of soccer balls at home, and when my youngest came along, we got him this little fluffy one with a rattle inside. Because it’s so small and squishy, he can grab it with one hand and throw it, which he loves to do.

I’m at a point in my life where parenting is No. 1. The fact that I can do a job in an art form that’s related to parenting is awesome. So whatever they’re doing and having fun with is a genuine interest for me because it’s also work-related. My son likes my music more than my daughter did at his age, but now she’s like a little kid who wants to sing and dance and wear roller skates. So this time when we go on tour, I think she’ll enjoy it more because she’ll understand what I’m doing. She knows I’m on the stage. She knows I perform. She watches a lot ofKPop Demon Huntersnow, so she knows that the stage is performing. And she’s like, “Daddy is a Demon Hunter.” In her eyes, I do the same kind of thing.

When I see them at the side of the stage, it feels like I’m at home. I’m just like, “Oh, I perform like I’m performing with you guys, just to everybody else.” The shows get anywhere from 1,000 to 3,000 people. And maybe 800 of those people are toddlers. My show’s developed in a way — it’s more like how the Wiggles perform but with the theme of a rave with safe sound levels. My music already speaks to the adults because it’s appealing to them, but then I perform with kids in mind. So I’m always having characters come on, props coming on, interacting with every song, making sure they know what to do, dance moves, songs they know. For some kids it can help if they’re holding something, so we have theseKuma the Monkeyballoons now.