Surreal. That’s the only word I have for what happened in my house this morning. It was cold and rainy and Ellie had been up since 5:30AM. (Her new thing. Ugh.) She was sleepy, but I wanted to hold her off until at least noon for her nap so she wouldn’t be a crazy, grumpy mess for Daddy later tonight. We played, ate, read, played some more, did some laundry, took a walk with Dorey…and then it was only 10:30AM. What were we going to do next? That’s when Ellie handed me one of her Sesame Street books to read and it hit me: she actually had no idea who Big Bird or Elmo or Cookie Monster were. She had never heard them talk or sing before. I usually have the TV on for background noise while we are in the house, but it’s normally tuned to The Today Show in the morning. (As an aside, Eloise has taken to clapping and waving her hands at Matt Lauer and Al Roker after commercial breaks when the crowds in Rockefeller Plaza cheer for them. And she stops everything to watch the local weather and traffic report. What a kid.) So I thought…what the heck. Let’s see if she’s interested in Sesame Street. We haven’t introduced her to cartoons or kids TV before so I wasn’t expecting her to show much interest. Oh my goodness, was I wrong. Captivated. The minute the theme song started playing, she was clapping and bouncing and moving as close to the TV as possible. While she didn’t sit still and watch the entire 30 minutes, she kept coming back to giggle as Elmo and the gang sang about the letter J and the word of the day. At some points, she was actually screaming with joy. I couldn’t believe the reaction. See for yourself. (Pardon the semi-distorted images. Yes, even professional photographers take pictures of their own kids on their phones. All the time.) It transported me back to watching the same show with my sister years ago when we were little more than babies ourselves. Sesame Street has changed, but not all that much, and it still brought a smile to my face. And seeing it through my daughter’s eyes? Absolutely fascinating. Sigh. Baby days are really behind us and she is officially a little girl. Just surreal.
