A busy time prevented me from watching many of the shows for NBC’s/Sci-Fi’s Heroes series. Thank goodness you can now watch previous shows online: http://www.nbc.com/Heroes/ . And yes Advertisers…we do take note of the limited but well placed ads or you’re name isn’t Orville Redenbacher!
I’ve talked previously about how much my son loves Dora the Explorer.? He’s now just over 2 1/2 and, although he still watches Dora regularly, Diego definitely takes precedence over Dora.? It must be the ‘boy’ thing and the idea of adventure, all while learning about different animals.? Diego is now the first TV show of choice when we have a morning at home.? I’ve found that I enjoy watching it as well and learn some things that I didn’t know.? I just wish they had more Diego shows available - it seems like the ones on Noggin are somewhat limited so have bought what DVDs are available.? Of course, my son doesn’t ever care if they are repeats!? It’s a winner with him!
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Ok, we are not sure if we like this idea or not. The thought of sitting a baby in front of a TV just scares the crap out of us. Yet, we all know whether it’s Teletubbies, Baby Einstein, or the latest on PBS…your baby as well as ours will likely be watching some TV. We just hope, that parents truly get it…you use the programs to interact with your child and not to baby sit your child.
The new, round-the-clock channel is called BabyFirstTV. For $9.99 a month, it will be available initially by satellite through DirecTV and later through cable TV providers as well.
TV offerings already abound for older toddlers, and a lucrative ? though controversial ? market has developed for baby-oriented videos, attracting the Walt Disney Co. and the makers of Sesame Street, among others. But until now there had been no ongoing TV programming aimed at infants.
“This is the first channel dedicated to babies and their parents ? transforming TV from its original purpose into a way for them to interact,” said Sharon Rechter, BabyFirstTV’s executive vice president for business development and marketing.
“The fact of life is that babies are already watching TV,” she said. “That’s why having BabyFirstTV is so important ? what we want to offer is completely safe, commercial-free and appropriate content.” KDKA.com.
With my wife still away on travel for work, my two-and-a-half year old son and I continue to turn our house into the bachelor pad we’ve always wanted. For our Friday movie night we decided to turn it up a notch. Pow! While the wife likes the cute and cuddly shows and fuzzy cute cats..we’re men and we sometimes need to watch shows that only men watch. So what did we watch? A movie about dogs. Not cute cuddly dogs either! No we watch on DVD a story about a BIG RED DOG!
Yep, that right. We watched Clifford’s Really Big Movie. Why is Clifford a real man’s dog? Well while he may like his family, and he may like his friends…there is only one thing that he really needs to make him happy. As long as he has a nice big bowl of Tummy Yummies he’s perfectly happy. Ahhh…finally a movie the boy and I can really get into!
As I mentioned before, these past few weeks have been busier than I had expected. Being a single dad, even for only three weeks, has given me very little time to write some of the father-son stories I wish to tell. While I joke that it’s our time to be bachelors, the truth of the matter is the focus really has been to be the kind of man my son really needs me to be with his Mom away on travel. That man is a Dad who is willing to give up working in the garage or time on the computer and instead sing songs, color in books, or build blocks. In my fortune cookie that came with our chinese food this evening was something very fitting and where I end this post:
Good examples have
twice the value of
good advice.
twice the value of
good advice.
Every Holloween our Zoo?invites children to dress up for Holloween?in?their annual Zoo Boo.? Our then?two year-old son was dressed?as his favorite character, Boots from Dora the Explorer. However, a large number of children were wearing constumes that I didn’t recognize.? With bulging fake muscles and the letter “i” on the front of the costume I pretty much figured the kids were dressed as?super heroes, but I?could not identify the show.? You see my experience?with children shows?was?for the under two-year old crowd and I was just glad that my son didn’t dress up as a teletubbie!? Finally,?another?parent?was able to help me out and say that the?kids were dressed like the?Heroes from?The Incredibles.
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?Well in the world of toddlers, six months can make a difference!? For our?family?”movie night” last Friday we purchased the Incredibles on DVD (in widescreen may I add).? The?kid?held interest through the whole movie, the humor kept Dad tuned in, and the?near G-Rated cartoon violence kept Mom at peace.? All and all, it was an incredible Friday night!
I know this has already made the Internet rounds, but I’m too impressed to not post it here. A remake of The Simpsons introduction we all see everytime the cartoon starts was done by Sky TV for airing in the UK. Only this introduction uses real actors and not animated characters! A link to the video can be found at: http://youtube.com/watch?v=49IDp76kjPw . The following excerpt is from a Reuters-Yahoo article:
Painstakingly crafted by Sky (BSY.L: Quote, Profile, Research) and its ad agency Devilfish, the video was originally intended as an on-air promotion for the Sky One network, which airs new episodes of “The Simpsons” in the UK.
The company decided to release it on the Internet as part of a word-of-mouth brand building exercise, tapping into the red-hot Web video sector.
“If we had only showed it on air, you might turn to someone and say that was really cool,” said BSkyB communications director Matthew Anderson. “Putting it online, there’s a fantastic discussion between millions of people — it’s bringing the Simpsons to them instead of having them tune in.”
After less than a week, the video has been viewed millions of times at online video sites like YouTube (http://youtube.com/watch?v=49IDp76kjPw) and Google Video.
Dora the Explorer ? my son is absolutely enthralled with her! This is his show of choice when he gets to watch TV. It is a very good show ? teaches a number of things to include Spanish! He could count to 10 in Spanish before he could count to 10 in English and that was right around is 2nd birthday. A very good educational show as well as a main character that I think my son has a crush on (plus he loves Boots the monkey as well)!
