Favorite Flicks

After reading this, you'll probably think my child spends a lot of time in front of the tv. What you have to realize about this little monkey is that she only sits still for about 10 minutes at any given time. So we can turn on a movie, she'll watch the first little bit, run off and play, pop back in and watch some more, then run off to play again. Quite convenient for me, because then I don't have to worry about her losing brain cells because all she does is watch tv. Anyway, on to the favorites.

First off we have The Little Mermaid. I'm thinking she was 11 or 12 months old when we started watching this over and over and over. One day when I had just turned it on she said "Bird!" and started frantically doing the sign for bird, followed by "Boat!" and signing boat. I was like "What the heck? You know the signs for bird and boat?!" Signing Times was starting to pay off. Pretty soon she had the show memorized. Any time a song was about to start she'd scream "DANCE!" and she'd start doing this little bob-up-and-down dance. It never got old watching her watch the movie and dance. Next off we had a tie between Monster's Inc., and Finding Nemo. Whenever Monster's would start she would tell us "Shh, baby sleeping." Then of course, right before the first monster comes on, Alyssa starts screaming and running around in circles. Then there was A Bug's Life. My aunt was watching Lys one day, and of course we had to bring our favorite movie to aunt Tam's. They were both sitting in the rocking chair when the grasshoppers arrived. Tammy snuggled up next to Lys to "keep her safe" from the mean bugs, and what does Alyssa do? "BOO!" and starts laughing her head off at the grasshoppers stomping through the ant hill. Here's aunt Tam, trying to protect the little girl and here's Alyssa, trying to scare aunt Tam. Her next addiction was the Pixar short film, Lifted, that's on before Ratatouille, referred to by Alyssa as the "bonk head" movie. If you haven't seen it, you must watch it to really understand what I'm about to share. It's a little flick about an alien-in-training trying to abduct a sleeping human. It shows the human all lined up to be lifted out of the window when the alien hits the wrong button and bashes the poor guys head in to the wall. As the struggling alien attempts to get the man out of the house, he keeps throwing him all over, tossing his body from the ceiling to the floor and into the walls... you get the picture. Anyway, Alyssa acts this entire scene out. She throws herself EVERYWHERE, "bonking" her head on to pillows, the bed, the floor, all the while laughing hysterically. The "Bonk Head" movie. Probably my favorite to watch HER watch. Now we must not forget Annie. She pulled it off the shelf one day and asked to watch it. I'm thinking, this isn't animated... she's not going to watch it... I'm going to be back in her in 1 minute turning on something else... are you sure kiddo? She loved it. And pretty soon she was saying "Miss Hanngen scary, be nice!" (pretty good pronunciation, if you ask me, of Hannigan.) We had also taken this movie up to aunt Tammy's and had left it there for a few weeks. Our next trip up when Alyssa saw it she said "Hi Annie, oh Annie, hi Annie!" and continued telling her long lost friend hello throughout the movie. My all time favorite moment during this particular era was calling Sandy, Annie's dog. Alyssa came into my scrapbook room, leaned over and started patting her little knees and says to me "come here, Sandy, here Sand... COME HERE MOMMY! Here mommy! Come here!" I about wet my pants right then and there. That girl! Calling her mommy like you call a dog! As for the reason this post was written, our current favorite film, one we put on at least once a day, two or three times a day since we've been sick over the last week, is not one that I ever thought would be a favorite of hers. I still haven't ever seen it all the way through, mostly because in the first 5 minutes I had decided I couldn't stand watching it, but now that I have seen more it's growing on me and I actually find it funny. That movie is Elf. That's right, Elf. Will Ferrell, grown man in tights, Elf. Tim thinks this is absolutely the most fantastic thing, that Alyssa is in. love. with this movie. I don't know what it is that captures her attention, but she loves it.