"mauuffff"

I usually give little e a half hour cool-down period before his afternoon nap. I've gotten to be quite anal about the whole thing in that I start to get the shakes if I'm even slightly off schedule. Our days just go so much obviously better if we're on.

Lunch usually happens at 11:30. Then 12:00-12:15 it's some sort of random play (usually basketball outside -- AGAIN). Then at precisely 12:15 I fire up the Baby Einstein to help him settle down. But before I do, I usually tell him what's going to happen next. (Like his mama, he likes to be mentally prepared.)

So a couple of days ago, we were playing a little one-on-one and I told him it was time to go inside to watch Einstein. His response? "Mauufff". To which I said, "Say what?" He repeated, "Mauuuffff". I said "Mauuufff?" He laughed. Silly mama she is dumb. He mustered up as much annunciation as he could and said in a very loud voice similar to an American tourist speaking English to a local in a foreign country, "Mauuffff." I still had know idea what he was talking about.

So we go inside and I start to insert the Einstein DVD. The trademark caterpillar appears and he grows more and more agitated. "Nooooooooooo." "No?? But you LOVE Einstein!" Clearly disgusted by my ignorance, he stomps over to the drawer where we keep our DVDs and pulls out a collection of old Mickey Mouse cartoon shorts. So I pop it in and he sits back and begins to laugh at the violent and un-PC antics of old-time Mickey Mouse -- er, MAUUFFFF.

I've never shown him this DVD. The husband claims he's never shown it to him. And according to the babysitter, months ago she had shown about two minutes of it to him, but he wasn't interested. The only time he's seen it has been the couple of times his cousins watched it when the were over. Apparently that was enough.

Just when I thought he had Mickey-Mouse fever, a few days after that, he requested "Lady and the Tramp". He only watched the first 10 minutes of it but requested it again for today's nap-time feature. I'm not convinced he's over Baby Einstein, but I must admit, I'm happy to have a little break from it. Next thing you know, he'll be attending the Sundance Film Festival what with his new sophisticated taste in DVD entertainment,

Tune in next week when he selects "The Fight Club" from the DVD drawer.