The best Joan Cusack show ever--and Otter dances

On weekdays, after G heads to work and Otter has had breakfast while I putter in the kitchen, Otter and I head into the living room to watch Peep and the Big Wide World. If you haven't seen this show (and I suspect most of you haven't), it stars three animated birds: Peep the chicken, Chirp the non-specific "live-in-a-tree"- type bird, and Quack the duck. Joan Cusack narrates the show, which focuses on exploring science concepts and a sense of discovery. Plus, it's funny and entertaining. The explanatory copy for the show says: "PEEP is a funny, engaging series that celebrates being curious, being adventurous, and, for at least one character, being a duck."

I love that this morning, while they were exploring the idea of ice, Chirp slipped and fell, and Otter looked at me and said "Boom! Fahll dowwn." I celebrate that it's a show that Otter actually relates to in words, and another chance to admire Joan Cusack, who does a fabulous job making the narration interesting.

Of course, Otter also relates to some things he sees in dance. While we watched "Let's Make Music" (the best Sesame Street DVD ever, even better than Monster Hits), one song came on with people dancing. Otter and G and I all danced.

Over the past six months, Otter's dancing skills have gradually changed from 1) standing in one place and bending his knees while waving his arms some and NOT lifting his feet at all to 2) turning around and around and around until he gets dizzy.

But this week he discovered he could alternate spinning with a sort of mini-stomping dance: moving his feet up and down, left foot up, right foot up. It sounds awkward but it was pretty smoothly done. He's going to be jumping any day now.