For unknown reasons, Dorothy was crying and apparently inconsolable for some time after I changed her diaper this morning. I took her out to the living room to let her play with toys, but that didn't help. I dragged Elizabeth out of bed to come help, but Dorothy still cried. Finally, I turned on Sesame Street. We've been watching the last 5-10 minutes of Sesame Street many mornings over the past week. The show, along with some Cheerios, seemed to calm down Dorothy. She was actually playing and only occasionally glancing at the TV.
When the "Elmo's World" segment came on, Dorothy became riveted. I don't know what it is about the furry red guy, but he really appeals to the toddler set. Today he was learning about bananas.
Near the end of the segment they had a sequence imagining what it would be like if Elmo were a banana. OK, sure. Elmo's a banana. Fine. But then a monkey comes and tries to eat Elmo. Elmo, of course, runs off screaming, and is pursued back and forth by the monkey for a while. "Look, Elmo's in his own personal hell!" I was imagining some horrible, bloody surprise ending to Sesame Street.
In the end Elmo was OK. But I wonder if the lesson was supposed to be "watch out what you wish for" or perhaps "be afraid of monkeys." Who knows what the kiddies will learn next?
Posted by Tom Nugent at April 6, 2005 01:29 PM