Can You Tell Me How To Get To Sesame Street?

This past weekend we did a little bit of travelling. We drove five hours down to Ash Grove Missouri to attend my grandmother's funeral. She had been declining for a while now, and it is so nice to know that she is in a better place now.

Knowing that our daughter is getting to the age where travelling is not her favorite activity, we tried to make things a little easier on ourselves. We started with purchasing her very first big girl car seat. She now weighs enough to be in one and while it is recommended to be rear facing, she could legally face forward as well. We thought that this might help her be ok with being stuck in her chair, if she could face forward and actually see us. She would also be easier to reach for when we needed to hand her various sources of entertainment like books and crackers. By the way, how did parents ever get by without goldfish crackers? Anyway, this tactic only lasted for about the first 2 1/2 hours of the trip. She couldn't really nap very well in her new chair so along with not wanting to be sitting any longer, she also was getting by on a mere 15 minute nap. The last 1/2 of the trip was comprised of intermittant screaming and a pit stop to allow her to run around a little bit. We finally made it to our hotel, but it was quite distressing for all three of us.

So we had come to a decision. We were going to purchase a DVD player for the car. It had been something that we had discussed doing at some point in time anyway, so we thought it would be a good idea to go ahead and get one. We made our way to Wal-mart and picked one out right away. We also had to pick up a few DVD's to watch as well. This is where we had a big dilemna. I wanted something longer than a 1/2 hour because I didn't want to listen to the same thing over and over and over again. We also needed something that might entertain a 1 1/2 year old, so full length Disney movie probably wouldn't do it either. The final criteria was to find something that would not be too incredibly annoying! Not an easy task when you are looking at kids movies. You hear that Dora?

Then we found it! A DVD compilation of 40 years of Sesame Street! It is a 2 disc set with 4 1/2 hours of segments spanning the entire history of Sesame Street. Plus, it was only $20! I thought that was a pretty good bargain! It was so fun to see segments that I totally remember watching when I was a kid. The best part was that Julia was completely entertained by it! The ride home was so much more enjoyable and she made narry a peep the entire way! It was fantastic!

Along with fidning a new love for Sesame Street, here a few things that I learned/observed while we were watching.

- Did you know that Oscar the Grouch was originally orange? I know right? I totally had no idea. It was really weird to see that.
- I don't think you can actually be considered a celebrity until you have done a guest spot on Sesame Street. Really random people have been on there such as; Beyonce, Michelle Obama, Collin Ferrell, Katy Perry, Jason Mraz, Billy Crystal, LL Cool J etc...
- They have super fun educational songs set to current hits. For example, The Plain White Tee's redid "Hey There Delila" to talk about the letter "T".
- Not exactly new news, but Bert and Ernie are hilarious. They totally crack me up. I could watch entire shows of them.
-They do hilarious parody's of current shows. They spoofed Law and Order SVU and made a "Law and Order Special Letters Unit". The Letter M was missing so they had to go and find it. They even included that strange "Chum Chum" noise that they always play between scenes and made several jokes about that too.

I really wish I could stay at home with Julia in the mornings and Watch Sesame Street with her. She loves it, and thanks to this trip, I love it too! I haven't watched it since I was a kid but I can totally see how it has managed to stay on the air for so long. It stays relevant enough for parents to enjoy while also educating and entertaining our children as well.

So good job Seseme Street. Way to be awesome for 40 years strong! Donations may be made to your local PBS station.