In honor of Sesame Street's 37th season (which begins today), The Lovely Mrs. Davis asked mom and dad bloggers to reflect on the following question: What television, music, movie or book from your childhood are you excited about sharing with your own children?
My son Brody is 3. We've already spent time giggling at Looney Tunes cartoons together, and he can sing the themes to "Superman," "Star Wars" and "Star Trek: The Next Generation" (which he calls "The Spaceship Show called Star Trek").
He has a healthy appreciation for all kinds of music. I made a playlist on the iPod of songs he likes to sing along to, such as "Dance, Dance, Dance" by the Beach Boys, "Pictures of Pandas Painting" by They Might Be Giants and "Ram On," by Paul McCartney. That last song, though, he's convinced is called "Grandma," and sings accordingly.
We both enjoy singing together while I play songs on the guitar. He's able to recognize the songs, and he's too young to notice how poorly I actually play, so it's a win-win situation.
We do a lot of "Name That Tune" kind of stuff, where I just play a little bit of a song and I ask him what it is. When I play a few notes of the introduction to "Older" by They Might Be Giants, his face lights up and he doesn't even wait for me to ask what the song is.
I try not to shove all my favorite pop culture stuff down his throat, but given that he spends a lot of time with his dear old dad, who is mildly obsessed with books, music and movies, he's going to get acquainted with it one way or another.
What I'm really looking forward to sharing with him are books. Don't get me wrong; he's got a giant library already, but I can't wait to read actual stories with him. I can get through Dr. Seuss books so far, but it's a chore to keep him still for very long.
But when he's ready, there are tons of books by Beverly Cleary, Judy Blume and John D. Fitzgerald waiting for him. I already refer to him as "The Great Brain" from time to time.
There are more books, of course, but those three were among my favorite authors growing up.
It's kind of cool, really, because as he gets older and older, there's more and more stuff to share. There will likely come a day when the two of us can sit on the couch, root beers in hand, ready to watch Bob and Doug McKenzie in "Strange Brew."
Beauty, eh?
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