I’ve noticed a trend lately of obsessions ruling over the boys. They all pass, and some are more entertaining than others. Some serve a purpose (such as C only eating dinner if Audioslave were playing), others the stuff of waking nightmares.
Early on, C was obsessed with Elmo. I tried with all my strength to steer him towards a less infuriating Sesame Street character, but no. Cookie Monster had a shot, but failed. C was 1 and knew how to rewind and replay the Elmo videotape we had (my parents once spent the better part of a day watching Elmo for hours because they didn’t realize C was restarting the tape when they left the room). We have 7 or 8 Elmo animatronic dolls in a closet somewhere, none of them work anymore. At some point we decided that “Sesame Street is for babies” and haven’t gone back, despite him now being in the prime target audience.
Our first joint foray was with Caillou. For those not familiar, Caillou is a bald little scourge that Canada foisted on the US. As if 1812 wasn’t bad enough, this whiny, tittering little boy was, at one time, the only thing we’d agree to watch on TV. Blessedly, this has passed. He never learns and he’s creepy. Where is his hair? Why don’t he and Rosie get older?
Next up was Curious George. Being a George fanatic at one time my life (though limited to books), I could kind of follow along. But then there was the movie, and the TV show, and the stuffed animals, and “Curious George and the Halloween Party” for a bedtime story every night for weeks… This has passed as well, though we still play with our George’s and read our George books now an again.
Dragon Tales was what replaced George. This mainstay of PBS Sprout was, mercifully, limited to our minimal TV time, but it was all we ever wanted to watch. Dragon Tales after breakfast, Dragon Tales before bed… I started having dark fantasies about Zack and Wheezy snapping and turning on Emmy and Max, or hoping that their mom would clean their room one day and throw the dragon scale away. Alas, though it rears its head from time to time as a bedtime stall tactic, this too has faded.
At some point, someone introduced my children to the Backyardigans. I don’t know who they are, but they were not very popular with me for a while. Yes, the show is clever, teaches great lessons and is overall well done, but geez we were obsessed. We’d be in the middle of dinner and one of the boys would suddenly start talking about what Austin did when he stole the dragon egg. I’d have no idea what they were talking about and then they’d start acting out the song and dance routine! This too became an after nap/snack, before bed time staple. Recently, though, we have not mentioned it a bit.
The reason for the latter passing is, I will admit, entirely my fault. One rainy Saturday afternoon a few weeks ago I had the boys at home and decided that they were ready to watch Star Wars. I wasnt sure they’d follow along, or even like it, but figured we’d try. Whammo, new obsession born and, boy howdy, does this one have the makings of a problem. We’ve watched all the movies, we have the Lego game for Wii, we have lightsabers, blasters, costumes, books, action figures, you name it.