New Obsessions

Elmo has been at center stage in Ellie's world for just about a year now, which I think is a pretty long time to seriously hold a child's interest. I was beginning to think that her love for Elmo was here to stay. But now I can see that new things are cropping up on the horizon. It's not that she doesn't like Elmo anymore. She still loves her Elmo dolls and gets excited when she sees an Elmo balloon in the grocery store. And actually, this weekend Gram and Grandpa took her to see an appearance by life sized Elmo at a local orchard and she hasn't stopped talking about how much fun it was to see Elmo and dance with him on Grandpa's shoulders. But the out and out obsession that she used to have has now simmered down to a mere adoration.

These days, Ellie is all about Dora. We don't have cable and we only have one Dora DVD that she has watched twice ever (she's not that interested in it), so her obsession is not about watching Dora on tv, it's about Dora STUFF. Ever since all the other girls in her class came in wearing Dora underwear, she has been all about Dora stuff. Dora toothbrush! Dora band-aids! Dora socks! Dora underwear! And the last few times we've been to the library it's also been all about Dora books. The Dora books are filled with words and phrases in Spanish, which I am miserable at pronouncing (and Marty constantly teases me about it even though his pronunciation is not that much better than mine) so they are not my favorite, but she loves them so I am working on my Spanish skills. (I can't believe I wasted my time taking French in high school - seriously everyone should have to take Spanish if only to be able to read Dora books to your children).

On the TV front, she used to only want to watch something if it had Elmo in it and otherwise was not at all interested in TV. Which was fine with us. This summer, as her Elmo obsession dwindled, so did her interest in TV. We went weeks and weeks without watching a single minute of tv at all (not that she was watching all that much before - maybe 20-30 minutes a day or every other day, but still). Then came that fateful day a few weeks ago at the beginning of potty training when I was trying to figure out a way to entice to her stay seated on the potty for more than 5 seconds so that she could poop and I put in a Wiggles DVD.

Boy was that a mistake! Now all she ever wants to do is watch Wiggles. Not just any Wiggles, just this one specific DVD (Pop Goes the Wiggles). That's all she would ever do if we allowed it. We let her watch some of the DVD almost every day after she cocks her head to the side and says "Let's watch a little bit of Wiggles. Okay? Just a teenie, tiny bit?" How can you deny that? For those not that familiar with the Wiggles, they are these annoyingly energetic Australians that sing and dance (badly) with a Dinosaur and an Octopus but man does she love it! This DVD is all nursery rhymes, and I must say that in the month that she has been obsessed with it, she has learned every nursery rhyme under the sun and is constantly singing them. I guess knowing all your nursery rhymes at 2 is pretty cool, but Marty and I are always singing them too because you can't get those songs out of your head! Ever! I am currently working to wean her from the Wiggles Nursery Rhyme addiction so that I can have my sanity back and stop thinking and talking in rhyme.

Another new thing that she is obsessed with is her stuffed Winnie the Pooh. She has had it since she was a baby, but in the last two weeks she has really grown a bizarre attachment to it. Pooh is apparently a very, very sad bear, because she is always telling us that "Pooh is sad" or "Pooh is crying" and she walks around with him on her shoulder shooshing him and patting his back to make him feel better saying things like "It's okay Pooh, don't cry" , "What's the matter?" and "Do you feel better?". None of her other dolls or stuffed animals are ever sad or crying - just Pooh. She wants to carry him around with her all the time now (he needs the comfort!), push him in the stroller and sit him at the table at mealtime. He has become a (sad) little part of our family.

P.S. Marty is recovering from surgery well (still a bit sore, but almost as good as new), Juan is growing and kicking like a champ, Ellie has done an excellent job with her new classroom at school and continues to rock the house with potty training and I continue to have a great pregnancy (which my doctor recently called "textbook perfect" - does that jinx me and guarantee that I will have a horrible labor?) as I quickly approach the 39th week!