Hi Annika,
It's nice to see you on the new board! I was going to make you a Ma Otter sig way back in December after we'd all come back from MuppetFest, but then I kinda disappeared from the Internet for a while. I'd be happy to send you a smaller version of it to use for an avatar if you ever want a change
Anyway, there seem to be so few of us around who are devout fanatics and have children. I happen to be one of them and proud to be passing on my passion for the Muppets to my daughter, who is now 19 months (that's a year and a half and a month for those of you who never understood why after 1 year old parents continued to chart their children's age by month. I understand now
)
It's funny, I've always been a devout Muppets and Kermit admirer from the moment I could focus my little retinas on a TV screen and watch those characters come to life. Over the years, I never
stopped being a fan per se, but when Gillian was born, it regenerated an appreciation I've had all my life and catapulted it to fanaticism.
When she was born, "The Rainbow Connection" was a constant song coming from my vocal chords. She'd fall asleep on my chest with the vibrations of Kermit's words echoing through her head.
Now, just as instinctively as you and I blink, when she gets up in the morning and sees me coming for her in her crib, I don't get a "Daddy! Daddy!" as if to say "Good Morning", but rather "Kermit? Kermit?" as if to ask if we can now watch Kermit as she knows that this is part of the process of waking up.
Gillians' rules for waking up:
- Yell for Daddy to come and get me
- Daddy changes my diapy
- We watch "The Muppet Show" or "The Best of Kermit On Sesame Street" so Daddy has some time to wake up to the world
Night-time is more for watching
The Muppet Movie,
Caper or
Manhattan (I think since I purchased them on DVD, I've collectively seen them about 80 times each). She won't sit perfectly still for anything other than these movies.
I'll never forget the very first time we watched
The Muppet Movie together after she'd been doing nothing but listening to Kermit sing "The Rainbow Connection" on the CD for months. It was like a whole new world opened up to her.
We were supposed to go see a special performance of "Sesame Street Live" next weekend, but it looks like that idea's been nixed since my source for tickets has fallen through. It seems we'll be settling for "Bear In the Big Blue House Live" instead, which is hardly anything to complain about. On the other hand, I can't wait for the moment when she can see Ernie and Grover up on the big stage, LIVE in front of her! She'll freak!
I hope to get her to Sesame Place (the theme park in PA) this summer if things go as I hope they will. Have you been with your little one yet? I know Jess (FellowWLover) takes her 3-year-old daughter every year and they love it.
Until then, we'll be tiding ourselves over with our home video collection and singing the songs in the car.
"Night-night!"