How we became Wiggles fans

(If you're here for TRDC post for this Friday, it's a Writer's Choice/oldie.)



The hubs and I were married smack dab in the middle of 2007. In January of 2008 we started our journey to procreate a little mini-us. In February of 2009, after having been pregnant and suffering a loss and still trying to get our mini-us, this video blew up in youtube and my husband couldn't resist sharing it with me:

Fast forward one year, I was sitting at home with our mini-us in my arms. Finally. She was everything (and WAY more) I ever dreamed she'd be. And she was in my arms and one day she would be walking and talking and driving and dating and... I would spend many hours staring at my baby doll, thinking about our future... her future. And for some reason, that video of the talking baby came to mind and I decided to do a "Hot Potato" (since the man in the video sings Hot Potato to the baby at one point) search in youtube and discovered this video:

At first, I just sat there with this WTF expression in my head and on my face (I'm sure) with my Lovie in my arms. I told the hubs, who sat at his computer (yeah we're a two computer household thanks to my hubs being a geek like that), to take a look at Hot Potato. And the next thing you know, we were looking at other Wiggles videos.

And somehow that all migrated into a regular rotation of Wiggles videos being watched on youtube with Lovie in my arms. Like 10 minutes every other day or so till one day, Lovie started to seem actually interested in the videos. Then more videos hit the rotation. And since Lovie always seemed interested and didn't complain, I'd let her watch whenever I thought to do so or when we had time (mainly on weekends).

Then when Lovie was around 13 months old, she said "Pop Pop" to me and started to ask for "Pop Pop" every day when we got home from school.

Then Lovie started to dance in my lap with a big grin on her face, clapping at the end of the videos and singing/humming along. That's when I knew we had turned her into a true Wiggles fan.

So when The Wiggles decided to tour to celebrate their 20th year of being The Wiggles, I had to get tickets. I had to.

And that's where we went a week ago tomorrow: to the Wiggles show!!

Though I was crazy enough to want to take my barely 19 month old to a show like this, I wasn't crazy enough to fork over nearly $175 for three tickets to sit on the main floor! Instead, I got the cheap balcony seats for $100 less.

Stupidly, we brought a small shitty camera with us instead of the better one so our pics - something they actually encouraged us to take plenty of - didn't turn out so great.

It was a fun time. Lovie did great and the show itself wasn't so bad (I found myself laughing at times as well as singing along and dancing in my seat!). Fortunately it lasted only about an hour and twenty minutes or so. Any longer and I probably would've started to get antsy.

There you have it- how we became Wiggles fans. : )



(If you're here for TRDC post for this Friday, it's a Writer's Choice/oldie.)

Get Ready!!!

"Get Ready... to... W I G G L E"

The Wiggles are coming!

The Wiggles are coming!!

And Lovie, her daddy, and myself are going!! Just ordered us third row center balcony seats (just cannot justify spending a hundred dollars more for main floor seats at this point) moments ago.

ZOMG!!!!!!

I can't believe I'm doing this and that I'm so freakin excited about it. I always thought it was silly and a waste of money to take the real little kids to things like this because they won't really remember it but... in case you forgot... Lovie's very first phrase was Wiggle related. So how can I NOT take her to this?! And that blue guy is cute. And so is Captain Feathersword. And... OK... I admit... I sing along to many of the songs.

Also...unrelated... but whatchu think of my new header up there?!?!

I caved

So I did it last night. I turned on the TV to Sprout specifically so that it could babysit Lovie.

not my pic, not my Lovie, not my TV. i mean, whose tv is that small?

Sigh.

Lovie and I got home and the first thing out of her mouth as we stood outside of the house was, “Pop Pop”. But I had to pee. Badly (again... ever since having her, I can’t hold my pee for nothin’. Really need to get to doing those damn kegals again!). She wasn’t happy with my immediate stop to the bathroom and decided to hand me all the tampons and pads in the drawer before she tried grabbing the Bitch Cat’s tail (we have two cats- one is a Bitch, one is Dumb). When I was done peeing, I realized I had to start on making something for dinner for her as heating up chicken nuggets or meatballs (both premade/packaged freezer items) wasn’t an option for a third night in a row. Plus her high chair was filthy as was her tray and I just knew I needed to get cracking before she started getting hungry in three minutes.

I gave Lovie a couple plastic containers to play with and a straw sippy cup of water. No. She wanted goldfish. Fine. It’s not like I still don’t have to vacuum the other Nemo’s so what’s a couple dozen more? I finally started to clean and she immediately started whining. I ignored and continued cleaning and she started reaching for the damn stove knobs and I said No three million times before I picked her up and, with her legs kicking wildly, moved her away from the stove.

The tears. Oh the tears.

None of this behavior surprised me. It’s not that she behaves this way every day because she doesn’t… unless she’s needing to sleep. And since yesterday was Wednesday and I was at work, she napped for a whopping one hour all day long whilst at daycare. Yippee Skippee to a one hour nap for an almost 14 month old that has to be up at 530 in the morning.

I knew putting her down for a nap was pointless as she was overtired and ready for actual bedtime and not just a nap. So she’d fight me on that and really, why make an already unhappy camper unhappier just to get her out of the kitchen. My poor lovebug!

So.

I did it. I caved.

I placed her on my hip (she immediately stopped crying of course) and walked down the hall and into the living room. I turned on the TV, turned it to 127, ensured that 127 was indeed Sprout, set her down and told her I’d be in the kitchen for a bit if she needed me.

I expected to hear whining and her little paws running after me but halfway down the hallway (it’s a long hallway- an office, two bathroom, and a bedroom are off of it!), I turned around and saw nothing.

I felt bad because I HATE HATE HATE when I see her get sucked into the TV. I hate it. I’ve kept it off all this time and she knows no shows or characters other than the Wiggles (from some videos we’ve watched on youtube). I hate the way the world around her ceases to exist once the TV has got ahold of her- and that’s why it’s very rarely on (notice I didn’t say never? that would just be rude and frankly, I’d have a breakdown without TV!). But, I really needed to get the kitchen in order and dinner made before she had a complete meltdown.

After several minutes without her and with dinner on the stove cooking, I quietly snuck into the living room and peeked around the corner and saw her just standing there watching the TV. I was glad she was OK, but I was sad she was sucked in as much as she was.

After a couple more minutes (during a boring adult commercial I suspect), she came in to the kitchen whining. I asked if she was hungry and she responded with an enthusiastic “mmmm” so I placed her in the high char, loaded up a plate with cheddar broccoli noodles (prepackaged- just add water, milk… though I also steamed some mixed veggies, blended those for a second and mixed it all in together), and girl went to town on dinner.

Afterward, we went to play. The TV was still on and it can be seen from her playroom which is off the living room (the couch separates the two). We played for all of five minutes before she noticed the TV and, like a friggin zombie, walked over to the TV and just stood there watching. I let her for a few minutes, hoping she’d come back to me to play but she didn’t. So I joined her and sat her in my lap for a few minutes before the next commercial.

Then I told her it was bath time and off we went to the bathroom to get that ready.

After bath, it was bedtime (6pm- cuz of that lousy nap), and she slept till 530 this morning.

All in all, she probably watched a total of half an hour’s worth of TV. And in the grand scheme of things, it’s not that much… except that she’s only awake and home for two hours.

Pop Pop

Yesterday morning when Lovie woke, I went and scooped her up out of her crib and put her on the dresser/changing table to change her diaper. She looked at me and said, "Pop Pop."

Pop Pop? I thought, smiling to my sweet little love bug laying there completely helpless with her curls sticking in every direction on her head and crusties painted on her chin.  I continued to look at her smiling and trying to think what she meant by Pop Pop so I repeated it out loud: "Pop Pop."

She looked at me closely and I swear her expression said, "C'mon mama, you know what I'm saying" and said, "Pop Pop."

I smiled and repeated "Pop Pop."

And then I wondered if she was talking about a Wiggles song we've been watching the video for lately so I started to sing the song and she got super excited and said "Pop Pop!" at the exact moment it would've happened in the song and the hugest smile invaded her face.



I got her dressed and continued to sing the song and told the husband about it during breakfast.

"Oh she was probably just meaning 'Up'."

Grrr.

I repeated the fact that I started singing the song and she sang along with me and smiled but he wasn't convinced.

The entire day Lovie bounced around the house dancing- like she always does. And when we watched the Wiggles, she got excited and bounced on my knee and clapped and said "Aaaaay" at the end of a couple of the songs.

The past couple of nights, Lovie's been waking at odd hours and crying in her sleep like she's in pain. We've resorted to giving some ibuprofen. Her two front teeth are coming in and I suspect there may be others working their way out too. The ibuprofen seems to help a bit but last night was a little more rough and the husband, being a night owl, did his best to get her to calm and go back to sleep.

At about 2 in the morning he came crawling into bed and said, "Something funny came through all of this."

"What's that?" I inquired still dreaming about some people who had to hold their breath under water for several minutes before the game they were playing started.

"At one point during the crying when I was holding her, I started to sing to her ..." (he starts to sing the Pop Pop Wiggles song) "... because it's the only thing I could think of and she stopped crying, lifted her head, and said, 'Pop Pop', then put her head back down and started crying again."

"Shut up!" I said fully awake.

"I'm not kidding," he said, "I thought it was pretty funny."





Lovie with attached to the hip doll and its kitty




Lovie and Momma- I guess Lovie's practicing her stink eye??