Sesame Street's Magic

Since we have gotten back from our trip, I have noticed a change in Niva...and I think it is thanks to her vacation episodes of Sesame Street. Here are a few examples of what Niva has done:

• At her music class, Niva paid attention to the teacher and followed his instructions during songs (as opposed to doing her pinball bouncy dance from wall to wall).

• Yesterday, Niva had an opportunity to be part of an audience twice. In the morning, we watched Joe McDermott (a local singer for children) and in the afternoon, we saw a puppet show at the library. In both cases, Niva stayed NEXT TO ME and paid attention to the shows the entire time (as opposed to getting up and running around in circles as she has previously done). This is NOT typical NJB behavior!

• The other day, I decided I wanted to teach her about words that start with the letter N. So I introduced it to her with, "N-n- Niva! N-n-necklace! N-n-night night!" And to this she responded, "N-n-newspaper!" What in the world?!! We never talk about newspapers! I asked her how she knew this and she said, "Murray." (In case you don't know, Murray is this new SS character who is like the Nick Cannon of Sesame Street. Niva loves him!)

• Then, we were playing with blocks and I showed her one with the letter 8 (for her birthday). Jokingly, I asked her what that number was even though I have never shown it to her before. And you guessed it, she told me it was "8." Again, I had to ask where did she know this from...she wisely told me, "Grover."

Sooooo, it looks like Sesame Street taught Niva a thing or two! I loved that show as a kid myself but we wanted to wait until she was a little bit older before we exposed her to TV.  Yet another dilemma of how to raise the kid...

By the way, we were waiting in line at the grocery store today and a lady asked Niva, "Do you like to play with scissors?" I told her, "Ummm no, I think she's a bit too young for that...why?" Ms. Lady pointed at her bangs. Boohooohoohooooo! :(