DadRock

An open letter to The Imagination Movers

Dear Imagination Movers,
How've you been? Things are good here. It's been a little colder than normal for this time of year, but for the most part I enjoy it. How's the weather where you are? Good I hope.

Look, let me get to the point. As I'm sure you're aware, I've talked a lot of trash about you. I don't think I ever blogged about you, but I'm certain that I told my wife how annoying I thought you were, and I told my friend Bryan that you sucked and that I'd rather listen to The Wiggles. Mover Scott, you in particular have found yourself at the business end of my insult cannon more than once. After all, I did say that you looked like Penn Jillette's nerdy son (seriously though, the resemblance is uncanny), and I think I once suggested you should go have improper relations with yourself.

I hope you'll forgive me, for these things were all said before your show debuted on Playhouse Disney. You see, now that I've had some time to get more acquainted with you, I've actually grown quite fond. Some of those songs are downright catchy, and your show, with its Monkees-like hijinks, is a welcome addition to the oversimplified cartoon world I get subjected to each morning. Mover Scott, I'm sorry I said you looked like you got kicked out of Hootie and the Blowfish for having stupid chin hair. It turns out you're probably the best one on the show, except for maybe that cutie Nina. What's her story, anyway? Why's she hanging around with four dudes all the time? That's a recipe for disaster, guys. Let me tell you, nothing can split up a band faster than having one cute girl hanging around all the time.

Don't get rid of her! That's not what I'm saying. I just think maybe you should have 2 or 3 more cute girls come hang out sometimes. I'd just hate to see Mover Smitty end up getting hurt when he falls in love with her and she chooses Mover Rich instead.

Finally, if you'll allow me one indulgence, I'd like to make a suggestion. You guys have all those wacky rooms in the Idea Warehouse, right? What if you had a Nacho Room, where a liquid cheese fountain was the centerpiece, and you could build your own nacho platter? Just an idea!

Anyway, I hope you will forgive me for my disrespectful past, and that we can just put it all behind us.

Sincerely,
dadrock

p.s. I don't mean to rock the boat now that we've gotten things smoothed out, but seriously, that "Numbers in my Bag" is the worst crap ever. You might want to drop that one.

p.p.s. Sorry, but as I was typing out the previos post-script it occurred to me that someone also needed to point out to you that the "Seven Days a Week" song is a ripoff of the theme for "Go Diego Go" so you might want to drop it too.

Two

So our son turned two on Saturday. Time flies. It's so hard to believe. The last two years have been turbulent and strange, and he's just been growing up in the meantime. But it's exciting and wonderful, and he's such a delightful little guy.

We had a party for him on Sunday, with family and a few friends. Big thanks to Jennifer S. for making an awesome cupcake cake. There are still 5 cupcakes left if anyone wants one.

On the speech progress front, the verbal break I mentioned in my last post a coupl'a weeks ago has hit full force, and he's now *constantly* trying to say new things. It's fascinating. Of course, now we're really seeing the extent of his apraxia, and it's clear that he's going to be in speech therapy for a bit for sure. You can recognize the words he's trying to say based on his cadence and the tone of his voice, but the specific syllables are often wrong, or they're drawn out as he struggles to get his mouth to move the way his brain is telling it to. For example, when he wants you to open something, he'll ask, but open comes out more like "omee". When he says Tigger, it's more like "Tee...cuh". Ls and Rs are going to be a problem, too. One funny result of this is that sometimes he sometimes substitues B for R. His sister's name is Ruby. We've got less that two months now to try to get him to say Ruby instead of Booby.

Speaking of Tigger, our boy is completely obsessed with the Tigger and Pooh Christmas movie. Every day we fight off watching it for as long as we can, because once you hit play that first time, he won't be happy unless it's on. Luckily he only half pays attention to it when it's on anyway, as he's usually coloring, playing with his cars, or chasing our dog Yoshi around, but we get *really* sick of it. But it's so hard to resist when he walks up saying "Pooh! Pooh! Pooh!" He's even figured out that we use the dvd remote to start it, so he'll find that remote and bring it to one of us. Smart kid. I guess we'll have to fight through a few meltdowns after Christmas over it though. I'll be damned if I'm watching this thing well into Spring.

Oh, I also said last time that I'd keep you updated on how my first batch of homebrew turned out. It's good. I've got about 3 six packs left, and I've got a Coffee Stout in the fermenter right now, but I won't be able to crack into it for a coupl'a months. I might do another batch in the meantime. It's a lot of fun.