Dancing With The Stars Withdrawal Begins

It has been one week since Dancing With The Stars (DWTS) had its finale, and already my two year old is going into withdrawal.  Of course, this could have something to do with the fact that she still has no concept of time...everything is immediate for her still.  I really work on not telling her about places we are going or events I know she will be excited about because she wants it to happen immediately and if it doesn't, like any two year old, she asks about it EVERY. FIVE. SECONDS.  So for my own sanity, I give her at most a couple hours of lead time.  More than two hours real time seems to equal an eternity in toddler time.  It just occurred to me that the no concept of time thing also seems to work in reverse, as she also refers to things that happened months ago (our trip to Great Wolf Lodge waterpark, her cousin's first birthday party back in April) as though they happened yesterday.  Hmm.  Interesting. 

Back to DWTS - between the fact that it does always seem to be in season and that we DVR it, Little One really does think it's on demand. (And WOW does it eat up DVR space.)  She thinks all of the female dancers, whether celebrity or pro, are Cinderella.  She differentiates between them with the color of their costume each week, so we have "Red Cinderella", "Yellow Cinderella", etc.  The exception was this season, after she saw pictures of Sherri Shepherd's son as a baby, she became "The Baby's Mommy".  Brooke Burke-Charvet is the "Cinderella Who Doesn't Dance", and Tom Bergeron is "The Boy Who Talks" or "The Boy Who Doesn't Dance". 

As soon as DWTS comes on, Little One runs to get her Cinderella dress and shoes.  The dress is a hand me down from when one of our neighbors was two and went to a wedding.  It's very sweet, but has seen better days, so it is perfect for playing dress up.  She pulls it on over whatever she is wearing, which makes for some great photo opportunities.  Then she dances along, which I like, because she isn't just parked in front of the tv, mesmerized. The only downside is that she often wants me to dance with her, which I just can't sustain for an entire 2 hour episode!

This weekend, Little One went to the hardware store with her daddy.  On the way home, from the dark backseat, he hears, "Welcome back to Dancing with the Stars!"  I've created a monster!

It's going to be a long summer of "I wanna watch Dancin', please" and trying to explain that it won't be on again for quite a while.  Hopefully she will have so much fun playing outside this summer she will forget all about it...

Dancing Muppets and Childhood Muppet Memories

I love the Muppets.  I have loved them for as long as I can remember.  There were only a few shows I can remember my family watching all together.  MacGyver and The Muppet Show are two that really stand out.  Looking back, I realize that we didn't watch that much tv.  We heard the words, "Go outside and play" on a regular basis.  My peanut isn't old enough for that yet, but it has been pretty easy to limit her tv consumption.  She is just a busy little bee, for the most part she would rather play and run around than sit and watch tv.  Which is just fine with me! Recently she has started to show interest in certain things on tv, mainly Cinderella.  She can also identify Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck and Miss Piggy.  She still calls Kermit "Frog".  She is turning two, and generally only watches 5-15 minutes of tv at a time.  I will watch Danicing with the Stars when she's around, as it is generally good clean fun.  She loves music and will dance along to the fast numbers.  Of course, she also thinks that all the female dancers are Cinderella.  I watch it on our DVR, and last week it took me a long time to get through it, I was watching it in 15 - 30 minute chunks.  (side note - I like to DVR this one because I can fast forward through most of the filler content, especially in the results show).  Peanut has also seen a few episodes of the Muppet Show on dvd, and is captivated by Miss Piggy right now.  Last week, she kept asking, "Piggy, Dancin'?" She made it very clear that she wanted Miss Piggy to appear on Dancing with the Stars.  I kept trying to explain that they were on two separate shows and that I do not have the magical powers necessary to make Miss Piggy appear on DWTS.  She shook her head at me each time and repeated, "Miss Piggy, Dancin'!" On Friday, I heard a teaser for this week's DWTS - and the Muppets are going to be on DWTS this week!  I must admit, I'm a little freaked out by this - she fished her wish!  Though it shouldn't be too surprising, since the movie comes out this week and ABC is a Disney property.  Yet the thought never crossed my mind.  Maybe my two year old has a future in marketing, as she drew this logical conclusion with no prompting.  There is no way she saw an ad for it or heard anything about it before the teaser I heard.  She just wanted to see Miss Piggy on DWTS.  Two of her favorite things, joined together.  It sounds like the Muppets will be dancing to a new song from the movie.  I am like a little kid, I can't wait to see it!

On the subject of The Muppets (the movie), I am hoping it lives up to the hype.  I did enjoy Muppets from Space, but for the most part, the Muppets have really just not been the same for me since Jim Henson passed away.  I am optimistic that this movie will bring a return to the Muppets I knew and loved growing up.  Now I just have to find a way to sneak out of my house to see it in the theater...I'm guessing other moviegoers wouldn't want to sit next to a very active two year old.