Sesame Street Blog

Word of the day:  Perseverance

We are in the thick of it. The potty trenches. Every day. We have potty breaks every two hours depending on how much fluid has gone in, guessing when it should be making its way out. Our girls may be twins, but they’re on the opposite ends of the potty spectrum. Lyra knows when she has to go, but doesn’t want to use the potty, insisting she have a diaper. We oblige, backing off as the experts say, but are encouraging her slowly to sit on the potty to try and go with the diaper on. She is happy to be diaper free for practice sessions, but when it comes to the immediate need she wants that diaper.


Ripley, on the other hand, uses the pot often when we have placed her there. She’ll sit a long time with a book, playing with a doll or my cellphone. However, she still seems clueless about when she has to go and will have accidents willy-nilly, coming up to us saying, “my underpants are wet.” As far as telling us she actually has to go, well she just hasn’t the time yet, playing is too encompassing. We’ve introduced “training underpants” which can help them know they’re wet but makes accidents a little less wet for us on the floor. Still, we’re hoping for a breakthrough before we have to every rug in the house steam cleaned. So, it’s not easy with one girl actually withholding more than we’d like and the other being rather laissez-faire about it all. Our goal is to stay open and healthy, but it’s been the most difficult milestone so far, and it ain’t over. 

Any helpful stories you have to share? 

Martin & Annie, 

I have enjoyed reading your family blog from the beginning to the end over the past week or so, during nap time.  Thank you for sharing your family with the world and because of this blog I feel like I know you personally...don't worry I won't be showing up for Thanksgiving anytime soon:)  My daughter is 18 months old so I have really enjoyed seeing your beautiful girls grow and seeing what milestones we have to look forward too!

I have learned so much about Sesame Street from the blog, which just makes me love it that much more!  However, I do have a question.  Since one puppeteer is several different Muppets (Telly & Snuffy, Bird Bird & Oscar) what happens if they are in the same scene together?

As parent and teacher, thank you for all that you do to help educate children. I look forward to future blog posts!
 

Dear Kristy,

      When two of a puppeteer's characters are in a script at the same time, we pre-record the voice of one of the characters, usually the one that is featured less, and have another puppeteer perform that character while lip-synching the voice.  In my case, if the two characters in question are Snuffy and Telly, then we pre-record whichever character is not Snuffy.  I will not lightly ask another performer to strap on the Snuffleupagus...he is a beast, and must be approached with respect and safety.  That all being said, my sweet wife wrote a show several years back that featured Snuff, Telly and Slimey all together in the same scenes. It served her lovely story idea, but set up some performance challenges for me.

--Marty

 

 

 I was checking over a bunch of my footage from the last year and found all these bits that were eerily similar, so I put them together. Granted, I was pointing a camera at the girls, but for every time I accidentally caught it on film, there were thirty other times I didn't. "Only Mommy" . . . . Most every parent will already know what this film is about. Young kids can be very mommy-centric; it seems to be hard wired into their systems. The dads of the world need to be patient, and not take it personally. As you will see, this is hard to do sometimes.  

 

 Emotion of the day: Fear

Our girls think Santa is “a little bit scary.” Their opinion of Santa Claus wasn’t helped last year when at Grandpa’s holiday party Santa Claus walked in and a four year old behind them went hysterical and was carried screaming from the room. Anyone who caused that kind of a response in an older kid definitely needed scrutiny. We keep saying that Santa Claus is a jolly old soul and will bring presents, but they always look doubtful and mention again that Santa is “a little bit scary.” “A little bit scary” is not a good label – it’s right up there with the witch in “Little Mermaid” and Maleficent in “Sleeping Beauty.”  

We thought it might help to bring them to the Mall Santa for a little lap time. Here’s what transpired:

Still, with or without Santa, the holiday spirit is growing in the house. The girls adore Christmas ornaments – so much so that all breakables are hung way up the tree – and they love holiday lights, jingle bells and the Rudolph song. Hopefully, Santa will grow on them as stories and legends begin to take hold.

May Santa be good to you and your family this year, too.