People sometimes tease me about how particular I am about which animated movies Liam watches. In addition to avoiding the ones with truly frightening villains (final battle in The Little Mermaid, anyone?), I am also cautious about music/scenes that might be scary or emotionally very stressful. Call me a nerd and there may be those that think "They're all Disney kids movies, what's the difference?" But obviously, in our house, there is a big difference.
It turns out our little boy (who's not so little anymore) is a sensitive little soul, and is greatly effected by what he watches (like his mom). He was watching an episode of Little Einsteins on Playhouse Disney the other day, and the "team" was helping a little lost monkey find his parents. For those who are unfamiliar with Little Einsteins, they use a few bars from a classical piece of music throughout the episode and introduce the composer (as well as art and dance, etc.... an attempt to educate children culturally). Anyway, it was a very moving piece (Moldau by Bedrich Smetana) and everytime the monkey was "talking", his "voice" was this bit of music (played by a violin...very tragic sounding). For a sample of the song, click on the second picture in the
Video Bar to the right or go to
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zuCPYxnqH4Anyway, the little corners of Liam's mouth started to turn down when the monkey was "talking" and pretty soon his eyes welled up with tears and he started to cry. The first time this happened, I immediately turned it off, but when the same episode came on another day and he had already started to watch it before I realized which episode it was, Andrew wanted him to watch the whole thing so that he could see that the monkey found his mommy and daddy alright. So he did, with his dad sitting next to him and holding him and as he watched, his little voice would tremble and he'd say "Monkey, sad" and "Mommy Daddy Monkey hi-ing" (that's hiding for those that don't speak 2-year-old). It was so heart-wrenching, and so adorable all the same time. He's our sweet sensitive little soul.
Well, it's official...Pacific Northwest, here we come! We are so excited!! Andrew has accepted a job with Amazon in Seattle, WA and we will be moving in a little over a week! Ah, that's soon! Once the offer came, it has all gone rather quickly, but the company has a good relocation package and will be moving us, so much of the stress has been alleviated. Now, it is just all the finding things on the other end...a place to live, doctors, dentist, Target (bien sur), Costco, places we like to eat, parks for the kids to play, etc. This is out first move as a family (with children, that is), and probably the biggest, most-unknown move Andrew and I have made since we were married - we both did those crazy things separately, but not yet together. ;) Moving back to California doesn't count as scary, since it was not unknown to either of us. So, here we go! Great and scary times ahead! Wish us luck!!
