Saturday, June 4, 2011

I love you, you love WHO???

I am informed that Ryan's current favourite character is Barney.

Barney. The Purple Dinosaur. 

After flying him halfway around the world to dine with Elmo, how could it possibly be that his heart actually belongs to a purple T-Rex?

Ryan has never mentioned "Barney" at home. We do not have a single Barney-anything in our house. No Barney CD/VCD/DVD, book, toy, water bottle or bedsheet. Whenever I hear people start singing "I love you, you love me...", the song that comes to my mind instead is, "This old man, he played one, he played knick knack on my thumb..." It was only two days ago that I learned the lyrics of the whole first verse of the "I love you, you love me" song. It was only two days ago that I learned of Barney's two sidekicks, BJ and Baby Bop.

Despite my almost-total ignorance of the Barney phenomenon, Ryan has apparently been carrying on a loving relationship with this dinosaur (oh boy, I can't wait till he starts dating). This was facilitated by his nanny and her daughter (I mentioned in an earlier post that they keep Ryan up to date with the times). According to Ryan's nanny, Ryan absolutely loves watching the show so they have stockpiled episodes and episodes of it. She approves and she says Barney's show is better than Sesame Street because it teaches concepts such as manners and friendship. She says it's also more appropriate for his age and that Sesame Street and Hi-5 are a little advanced. I actually agree that older children will be able to benefit much more from Sesame Street and Hi-5, but I've not watched a single episode of Barney, so I personally can't compare.

Ryan's nanny gave us a hint of the Purple Fever before we left for our USA trip and, as a concession, we bought a Barney T-shirt from the Toys 'R' Us store in Times Square. Nothing more, because we were Elmo-focused and we didn't know if the Purple Fever was chronic. We now know that the Purple Fever is just as strong as Elmo love.

Well I suppose Ryan can have more than one love... is it like loving ice-cream while still loving pizza?

Anyway, I was informed on Thursday, both verbally by Ryan's nanny and through an email from her daughter, that Ryan must "meet and greet" Barney at Marina Square this weekend. Of course, Richard and I were more than happy to make it happen.

Behold.

Ryan is wearing his Barney T-shirt from USA (it shows Barney climbing on top the Empire State Building).

I should add that the show was much better than the Sesame Street one that we saw last weekend. The Sesame Street one only had one song-and-dance routine with the bulk of the show taken up by games with the audience, during which the Sesame Street characters disappeared from the stage. For the Barney show, it was Barney (and friends) all the way, singing and dancing. In fact, the show is titled "Sing & Dance with Barney."

The crowd was much much bigger than the one at the Sesame Street show, and the ushers let only one parent into the 'pit' to accompany the child (I watched from the side). Richard queued up with Ryan for more than 1.5 hours before the show and they managed to get a spot in the second row from the front, plus a 'meet-and-greet'/phototaking pass. I can confidently tell you that, in the time it takes to queue up for the show, you can get a facial done. How do I know that? Because that's what I did. Hee.

If you're up for it, do try to go with more than one adult, so that you can take turns or take your child for a short walk in case he/she gets restless. We were lucky - Ryan was actually really good and patient, he stayed in the queue without a fuss, although people around him were moving in and out of the queue, eating snacks and playing with toys. 

Anyway, Barney now has a presence in our household - Ryan came home with a Barney pillow and a Barney backpack with a Barney soft toy. I tried to make him choose one, he wouldn't let go of both. The Purple Fever is ON!

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