The Mouse with the Big Ears

Playhouse Disney is a series of cartoons shown on the Disney Channel every morning. They're new cartoons featuring characters such as Mickey and the gang, Pooh and friends, Little Einsteins etc. Now, don't worry (mom), I don't plop Brooklyn down in front of it for three hours while I sleep/get ready in the morning. But once or twice a week, I let Brooklyn watch one of the shows.

A couple of weeks ago, Brookie and I went to Disneyland with Grace and Evie. We were fortunate enough to see Mickey and Minnie heading to their places to take pictures, so we quickly jumped in line. Often you'll have to wait 20 minutes or so just to get a picture, and we only had to wait about 2 min. When it was our turn and we stood next to Mickey and Minnie, Brooklyn started screaming and writhing in my arms. Apparently seeing larger than life "mice" can be frightening to a one year old. It was all I could do just to hold onto her. (See below picture.)

As soon as Grace and Evie jumped in with us, Brooklyn calmed down a bit. Apparently she thought that if they were going to eat us, they would have done so by now. Or maybe it was just the comfort of having her friend close by. She had barely had time to calm down before the picture was taken and we were shunted aside. She kept looking back to check out Mickey and Minnie until we had walked out of sight.

A couple of weeks passed. Brooklyn loves to look at the pictures on my phone (it has a pretty good camera which I use at places like Disneyland since it's so much smaller than our actual camera). She was clicking though the pictures and came to the above picture. She held the phone out to me and started making her impatient noise ("ah, ah"). I wasn't sure what to do, so I started singing the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse song, and she started bopping her head and bouncing her knees. I followed it up with the "Hot Dog Dance" song (for those of you who've seen the show) and she continued dancing and smiling. She made me do it about 5 times in a row. Since then she's come to me with the same picture numerous times and showed off her little dancing/bopping skills as I sing along. She also occasionally brings an ugly little stuffed Mickey that we got out of a cereal box and makes me sing the same songs. Yesterday we were at Target and she saw a BIG ball with a picture of Mickey and the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse gang. Of course I had to buy it. She toddled around the store carrying it in her arms even though it completely blocked her view and she could barely get her arms around the sides. If I ever turn the show on now, she runs over and stands in front of the TV, dancing away. So Mickey, even though she screamed when she saw you, she really does love you.