finally moving into the 21st century

So we finally bit the bullet and have actual CHANNELS on tv, thanks to the fact that cable internet is the best deal around here. A friendly technician named Matt (whom Simeon insisted on calling "Cable Guy" the entire time he was here) hooked us up, and when he turned on the television to test out the connection, S immediately became seriously entranced -- standing in the middle of the living room with his jaw literally hanging open, for at least a half an hour. Finally, he broke out of the seance and caught my eye and spoke, one word: "ELMO!"

Since then we've let him view a little pbs in the mornings, and today he was pretty thrilled when it came time for Sesame Street. My favorite comment was still during the opening song... he sat on the couch with his arm around a stuffed Dumbo, a critter he insists is a "she" that he's rediscovered with great affection after its 6 month+ stay in storage, laughing out loud and saying,

"Grover is funny. Because he doesn't have wings... He has hands! hahahaha".

Truly, it's been great watching his reactions as we unpack. I can only imagine it's like a strange version of Christmas, as more and more forgotten books and toys get taken out of boxes and unwrapped from newsprint paper. So many are things he really didn't give a second thought to in the past, but now will sit with for extended periods of time, marveling at the how great they are. Then there are the special few that he's always enjoyed, but had to be separated from for a painful two weeks so they could ride up on the truck instead of being donated to Goodwill. The best of those is his red plastic car -- the kind so many American children have, with a hole in the bottom for foot-powered driving. There were actual tears when we dropped it off at storage, and happened to be off with Francois buying sandwiches when it was unloaded from the big truck. His eyes got as big as pancakes when they got back and he saw it sitting in the garage, and a giant smile grew all across his face... "My car! My red car! The movers brought my red car!" He stood in the garage for a long minute, just patting and rubbing the roof, and smiling his huge smile. "I'm so happy!", he finally concluded!