Sunday, July 15, 2007

The indoctrination program finally bears fruit

We parked the kids in front of the Sesame Street Old School DVDs this afternoon for an hour before dinner. Later, as we were preparing to go out for our post-prandial stroll, Archer started counting in a funny voice -- puckering up his lips like he was pretending to be a fish, and semi-growling in a low tone. It was only when he mentioned "a counting contest 1 to 10" and started holding up his fingers one by one (with his palm facing him, rather than out toward the listener) that I realized he was imitating Ernie in the slow counting sketch. There doesn't seem to be a YouTube, but maybe you remember it: Ernie counts in a theatrical manner and at a glacial pace, and every time Bert coughs or speaks or breathes, he starts over from the beginning. I couldn't contain myself when Archer looked at me and said, in his strange Ernie voice, "What're you laughing about, Mo -- what're you laughing about, Bert?" Followed, of course, by: "I need to start again. One!"

Of course, CG went over to the Sesame Side a couple of weeks ago, when she wouldn't stop inserting Cookie Monster into the alphabet. It was funny to Archer at first, but after a while he got annoyed and started chiding her: "Uh, Cady Gray -- Cookie Monster is not a letter. Do not say people in the alphabet."

5 comments:

Unknown said...

That Cookie Monster in the alphabet thing is the funniest damn thing I've ever "Cookie Monster" seen. I'm going to insert "Cookie Monster" in many a sentence from here on out. I wonder if that will affect my editing "Cookie Monster" work...

Doc Thelma said...

When they start marching around the house chanting "A loaf of bread, a container of milk and a stick of buttah!", *then* they'll be true converts.

Do you know if there's a collection of old Electric Company's available? LetterMan rules!

donnadb said...

Doc --

Uh, yahhhhh!

The Best of the Electric Company, Volumes 1 and 2.

We're the proud owners of both. "It's the plumber! I've come to fix the sink!"

PossumCrepes said...

I would love to identify, but I never liked Sesame Street as a child. I was more likely to turn the channel and look for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. If I couldn't find them, I would leave the television entirely for legos, linkin' logs, or my TMNT playset.

Anonymous said...

Yay! I hope I can get my own future children excited about old (for me that is early 80's) Sesame Street. I watched the latest version some in college, and was horrified to find that the last 20 minutes were devoted to "la la la la la la Elmo's World." (Even though I do appreciate that his fish's name is Dorothy)

My brother, sister, and I have ended up singing "Pero is pear/ and platano's banana/ pineapple is pina/ and apple is manZAAAAAna" several times in the last year or so.

I do love old school sesame street. Riiiiiiiiiiiight???