Australia's internationally celebrated children's show Bluey is making grown adults cry (again) for its representation of three new characters.
Bluey, which is made by Brisbane-based Ludo Studio, is renowned for its unexpected hard-hitting moments on issues including friendship, parenting, pregnancy, even death.
Two new episodes from the latest season, Turtleboy and Onesies, are no exception.
In Turtleboy, Bingo finds a toy turtle at the playground and wants to take him home, but her dad Bandit says "it's not the done thing".
Fans have described their delight at watching the moment the episode introduces newcomer Dougie and his mum, voiced by actress Miranda Tapsell.
Dougie, based on a cavoodle, is profoundly deaf and uses Auslan to communicate with his hearing mum, who signs and speaks.
The Bluey official Facebook page is full of praise from viewers to the creators for including signing characters in the show but not making it the focus of the episode.
"Thank you for turtle boy. My 5 year old suffered unknown hearing loss last year and now wears hearing aids. My favourite part about this episode is that you didn't even make it a thing. Bluey at it's best. Also I'm not crying you're crying (yes dear, happy tears)," Elspeth Singe wrote.
"So loved this episode for our hearing impaired son. It was great for our whole family to watch. Love to see more of this character," Nic Ky wrote.
"Thank you so much for including signing characters and AUSLAN interpreting. Representation truly matters. And just when you think Bluey can't get any better… you all had me in tears," Megan Louise wrote.
Ludo Studio worked with consultants from not-for-profit service provider Deaf Connect to authentically create the Auslan interaction between Dougie and his mum, which includes 62 Auslan handshapes and signs.
Alex Fisher from Deaf Connect told ABC Kids Early Education there were challenges in helping create the animated Auslan.
"The characters in Bluey have four fingers on each hand which meant we were limited in some of the signs we could use, particularly if they required fingerspelling (if there is no Auslan sign for a word, the word is spelled using letters made on fingers/hands)," Ms Fisher said.
"In addition to handshape considerations, it's important to use correct orientation, location, movement, and non-manual features.
"There were a few changes made along the way to correctly reflect this after the scenes started to come together."
Hot off the heels of releasing Turtleboy, Bluey hit its viewers right in the feels with Onesies.
The episode was highly anticipated by fans of the show because it brings in mum Chilli's sister Brandy, voiced by Australian actress Rose Byrne, for the first time.
There had been fan theories as to why Brandy and Chilli hadn't spoken in years, but no-one saw this coming.
After coming over for a visit and giving her nieces Bluey and Bingo onesies as a present, it's evident Brandy feels awkward around the kids and her sister, and tries to leave.
Later, Bluey asks her mum why Brandy is sad and why they've only seen her once in their lives.
Over a montage of Brandy playing with Bingo, Chilli alludes that her sister can't have children:
"There's something aunty Brandy wants more than anything as well but she can't have it, and there's not really anything anyone can do."
Viewers have shared their struggles with fertility on the Bluey Facebook page, and thanked the show for addressing the issue with empathy.
"Woah, that hit this IVF mumma HARD. This is the first time I've actually felt 'seen', and I'm just sad that it's taken a childrens' cartoon to make me feel this way. Thank you to the writers for addressing such an intensely emotional subject, for so many, with such kindness, empathy and consideration," Allana Handley wrote.
"I was not ready for this episode. Such a sensitive topic handled by the Bluey team with the kindness and grace they are known for. Beautifully done. I'm sure there are many viewers out there this morning having some big feels," Rhiannon Connon wrote.
Director of the Fertility Society of Australia and New Zealand, Manuela Toledo, said the episode was a good way to start a conversation with children about fertility.
"Every prep classroom has at least one or two children who are there as a result of fertility treatment, so it's an incredibly common thing," Dr Toledo said.
"There's lots of different causes of fertility, that program's not appropriate to go into why Brandy didn't have a baby or wants to have a baby and can't have a baby at the moment.
"There's also lots of social factors that might come into it.
"Maybe she's a single woman and hasn't been able to find a sperm donor, or maybe she's in a same-sex relationship and they haven't been able to utilise sperm or they haven't been successful with a sperm donor.
"There's lots of other things that could be going on in the background, but I think the important thing is that it actually opens that conversation."
Onesies is not the first episode of Bluey to address fertility.
In the season two episode The Show, Bingo is pretending to be her mum during an impromptu Mother's Day performance and has a balloon tucked under her shirt like "a baby in her belly".
When the accidentally balloon pops, Bandit reaches out and touches his wife's hand.
While the show doesn't explicitly say so, viewers commented it was a subtle and sensitive way of representing pregnancy loss.
Bluey is available in Australia on ABC kids and iview.
