Arthur's Baby (episode)

Summary
Arthur isn't too sure he wants a new baby in the house, but once Baby Kate arrives, he proclaims that she is pretty cute after all.

Plot
This episode opens with The Read family celebrating Kate's first birthday and Kate puts her face in the cake. Arthur tells the viewers that babies do some dopey things, like Buster who ate un-paid-for food in the grocery store, Mr. Ratburn who drew numbers on the wall at home, and even Jane and David. Kate is growing up and Arthur is already missing the days when she was a cute little baby. But D.W. argues with Arthur and she shouted how that Arthur didn't even like Kate when she was a newborn baby. D.W. remembers exactly what happened.

-Title Card- Arthur and D.W. are playing a grape eating contest and D.W. eats the last grape when Arthur tries to get it. David calls Arthur and D.W. to come to them and Jane said that they are going to have a baby. While D.W. is excited about this, David told Arthur that it will take six months before the baby comes. Arthur gets nervous because of his friends telling him what could happen after the baby is born:


 * At gym, Binky tells Arthur that he should buy earplugs because babies never stop crying and he could forget about sleeping. (Arthur imagined the baby at the dinner table crying a lot very loudly. Arthur asked his parents to pass the salt, but they couldn't hear him and a fire truck drove by and the crying disturbed them they covered their ears.)
 * Francine tells Arthur that he will start talking baby talk all the time.


 * Buster tells Arthur that he will forget about hanging out with his friends after school and will have to babysit.

At that point, Muffy leaps right into the pool, briefly causing water to splash onto the entire screen.
 * At the swimming pool, Muffy tells Arthur that in a few months, he would be changing all of the baby's dirty diapers.


 * Buster puts a shoe on Arthur and tells him "they should protect you from those smelly diapers" and tries to pull it off and falls with a crash that sounds like a broken glass/window in Arthur's living room.

One night, Arthur has a terrible nightmare about a day when Francine and Binky are bullying Arthur in front of everyone at a football game and everyone bullies and laughs at him. To make this even worse than people thought, Binky tells Arthur "And you smell like diapers, too!" Arthur gets mad at everybody.

Arthur in bed says no to everyone in his nightmare. Jane comes in to Arthur's room and asks him if he's alright. Arthur tells her that he was having a dream and Jane thinks he is excited as she is about the baby coming. The next day, Arthur tells Buster that the baby is almost here. When one mom with triplets walks past them, Buster asks Arthur, "What if your Mom has more than one?" Arthur daydreams that there are ten babies in the same room with him, which makes him scream. When Arthur gets home, D.W. and Jane are in the living room. D.W. wants to show Arthur how he can diaper a baby by showing him her diapered dolls including Bionic Bunny. Arthur doesn't like the diaper on Bionic Bunny and scolds D.W. for putting it on him. Jane shows them the videos of Arthur and D.W. when they were babies. The first baby video is Arthur at age one and learning how to walk. Jane tells Arthur that he was a cute baby. "What went wrong?" D.W. asks until her baby video comes on and tells Jane that she hopes the new baby will be just like her.

Jane is packing her bag and tells Arthur that she is ready to go to the hospital at any time now. D.W. gives Jane her self-portrait to help Jane look at something while she is at the hospital. The next day, Arthur and D.W. are racing to the bottom of the stairs. D.W. claims she won. Arthur says it was a tie. D.W. laughs and heads to the kitchen. Arthur follows until he spots Grandma Thora making blueberry pancakes. "Grandma Thora, you're in the wrong house," D.W. says. Arthur asks Grandma where Mom and Dad are and Grandma tells them that Jane and David are at the hospital and they both have a new baby sister. D.W. is excited and does cartwheels. Arthur is not excited. At the hospital they meet their new sister, Kate. Jane and David bring Kate home. Arthur is happy, but Kate often cries every time he gets near her. One day, Jane leaves Arthur in charge of Kate, when Arthur gives Kate a pacifier, D.W. warns the pacifier is dirty, making Kate cry, D.W. cleans the pacifier and puts it on Kate, silencing the baby. Then the doorbell rings, D.W. finds Buster and Francine on the door, she lets them see Kate peacefully asleep, but all of a sudden, Kate spits out the pacifier and cries. D.W. tries to feed Kate her bottle, but still cries, leaving Arthur in care as D.W. looks for a clean diaper. Meanwhile, Arthur pats Kate numerous times until she burps. This act bonds the two, and Kate kisses Arthur on the cheek as a thank-you, and everyone watches in happiness.

Major characters

 * Arthur Read
 * D.W. Read
 * Kate Read
 * Jane Read
 * David Read

Minor characters

 * Thora Read
 * Buster Baxter
 * Francine Frensky
 * Binky Barnes
 * Muffy Crosswire
 * Nigel Ratburn (as a baby)
 * Lisa Ratburn (debut)
 * Mr. Marco (Arthur's daydream)

Background characters

 * Alex
 * Brian
 * George Lundgren
 * Patrick
 * Steve
 * Sue Ellen Armstrong
 * Prunella Deegan
 * Alan Powers
 * Maria Pappas
 * Molly MacDonald (Arthur's daydream)
 * Kiefer (Arthur's daydream)
 * Rattles (Arthur's daydream)

Trivia

 * In Arthur's imagination, Mr. Ratburn was called 'Emil' by his mom. This first name was seen in his family tree in "Background Blues" but his full name was later given as Nigel Charles Ratburn in "Bitzi's Beau". His name has consistently been Nigel ever since.
 * Even though the title was not read on the home video and DVD releases, Binky does say the name of this episode when it aired on television.
 * Though this is her first proper introduction, Kate previously appeared in "Arthur's Spelling Trubble".
 * Kate's crying is completely different in this episode (and D.W.'s Baby) compared to the stock sound effects that are normally used for Kate and other babies.
 * T-shirts should never be tucked into diapers; nonetheless, this mistake continues to be done. The only character to be properly seen with the shirt hanging out of the diaper was Arthur when he was a baby.

Animation errors

 * When Jane asks Arthur to watch Kate, Kate was wearing blue pants. Few seconds later, they changed back into her regular clothes.

Differences from the book

 * Kate's bassinet was purple; although in the book, it was white (as well as on the cover illustration).
 * The videos of Arthur and D.W. as babies showed Arthur as a toddler at the age of 1 and D.W. when she was just a baby with a lot of crying. In the book, it was a photo album that showed Arthur wearing a cowboy hat and crawling at 9ninemonths and sitting in a high chair with a bowl of food on his head and eating at the age of 1, and D.W. when she was two months old and when she was 5 months old.
 * In the book, the Bionic Bunny action figure wasn't featured, and D.W. was only diapering her dolls.

Home video
VHS:
 * Arthur's Baby (VHS)

DVD:
 * Arthur's Baby (DVD)
 * Arthur: The Complete Series One

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