Home videos

"Most family home videos are boring.  You film your kid doing something, like tying his shoes for the first time.  It seems really exciting the first time, but years later you’ve seen your kid do that every day for years.  The better videos are of things that are boring now because you currently do them all the time. Someday you will no longer be doing them and the video will bring back memories." - Jeff Ely, Cheap Talk

I keep meaning to capture more of the mundane moments of our family - daily photos, audio, video. It's a dilemma - living fully in the moment or documenting the moment for posterity? Lately, by necessity and by inattention, we have taken fewer pictures and recorded less. I'm okay with this, except when I'm not. MamaCue and I feel like this commercial is a glimpse into our future:

Poopie

Slane is becoming obsessed with the potty. She tells us when she goes poopie (any action in that area is considered poopie), and gets her little toilet seat and insists on sitting there. Saturday she was there for a half hour, just hanging out. She insisted on using mass amounts of toilet paper, so now we tell her that she can only use it if she goes. She did go Saturday while sitting on her little seat, and got upset everytime I tried to take her off. It is super cute, but takes lots of patience, because she wants to sit there all the time.

I guess she is growing into a big girl.

"What does this animal say?" "Baa."

While Slane continues to say that all animals speak sheep, there are signs that her thoughts on the matter are changing. We have a baby animal peek-a-boo book. In that book, the kitten says "Meow" and the penguin chicks go "Peep peep." (What do penguin chicks say, anyway?) Her bear cub growl is both cute and ferocious. But when you ask what the bear says without the book in hand, the bear says "Baa."

All of this reminds me of a very funny song from Sesame Street, "The Question Song." A girl muppet sings to Grover a question. The answer is supposed to begin with the letter Q, but Grover gets stuck on a bovine theme:

Girl (sung):
Now here is a question,
A question for you.
Remember, the answer
Will start with a "Q".
Just think of a duck,
Be it white, brown, or black.
What sound does it make?
Why, a duckie goes...

Grover (spoken):
Mooooooooooo!

At our house, the duckie goes "Baa!"

PS: Sesame Street now has a Tumblr, with video clips!

Video: Slane the climber, the animal talker

Slane likes going for rides. Sometimes she'll just climb into the stroller like this:



She's working on her animal sounds. Usually every animal says "Baa." Not this time.