It's The Great Pumpkin!

Tonight ABC will be airing It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, as well as the Toy Story Halloween special that's kind of ok, but I'm not that excited about.  Pumpkin is where it's at!  I'm also excited, more so than ever, because it's my son's first Halloween.  I've seen all of the holiday Peanuts specials a million times over, and I enjoy them all, but there's something about watching them with your kid for the first time that is really special.  Stinkbug has no idea what's going on, he's not even a year old yet, but he'll probably like the colours and the fact that there's a puppy.  He'll love the music, because there's nothing he likes better than music.  He'll probably enjoy Toy Story more, because he likes the movies and he has his own stuffed Sheriff Woody (a sweet hand-me-down from my best friend's son).

I'll probably cry like a total psychopath.  That's my shtick now.  I cry at the drop of a hat over the stupidest things.  I don't know if my hormones never normalized, or if I'm still having postpartum depression, or something about having a baby permanently breaks something in your brain, but what makes me cry is very specific.  I cry over things I love, things I've been seeing or doing or experiencing for years.  I cry because Stinkbug is seeing and doing and experiencing some of these things for the first time, and not as a person who's been aware of something and decided to try it but as someone who's brand new to the world and everything is new and wonderful.  I cried the first time he giggled and smiled when he heard the opening lines of the theme for Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood as part of the theme for Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, because I loved Mr Rogers as a kid, and even though he's gone his Neighborhood of Make Believe is still there and thriving.  And even now, I'm trying not to cry because I've become ridiculously maudlin.

But seriously, Fred Rogers is one of the best things to ever happen to children's television.

 

I nearly had a full-on meltdown when I remembered that Thomas The Tank Engine --now Thomas and Friends--was part of Shining Time Station. 

Holy crap, guys, it's Ringo Starr!

 I get stupid excited whenever characters from Sesame Street that don't get a lot of airtime anymore, in this age of Elmo and Abby Cadabby, have bit parts in larger musical numbers.

Did you catch the Two Headed Monster?!

I lose my tiny little mind because Stinkbug is losing his tiny little mind and I'm so excited with him.  I had a troubled childhood, and there wasn't a lot of happiness, but he's so happy and joyous.  In a way he's giving me what I never got: a chance to be a little kid without fear.