Planet Earth w/ a side of Zoe talk
Last week Daniel and I decided we wanted to purchase Planet Earth (the BBC DVD). We’d missed it on television because we don’t have cable but we had heard good things about it. After seeing a fifteen-minute preview last Thursday, we decided we needed it for our DVD library. We were going to buy the DVD set because we wanted to share it with Zoe. Zoe needed us to buy this DVD. Um, yeah.
We seriously discussed this at great length. How we thought Zoe would think it was cool*. How it would be a learning experience for her. We completely justified making the purchase because we were doing it for our baby - Our baby who will not be watching Planet Earth for years to come, but whatever. We were also buying it because we wanted to watch it, so we watched the first episode last night.
The views were gorgeous. The camera work was amazing. The animals were intriguing to watch. And I didn’t cry once. Well, I almost did, but I toughened up.
- I did squeal (seriously, I did) when the mama polar bear came out of her den and her two cubs followed her. I made a “aw” face when the narrator said she’d lost half of her body weight during hibernation and that even though she was hungry, her first task was feeding her cubs.
- I almost hid my eyes during two hunts, but I forced myself to watch.
- I laughed at the funny birds – especially the one who cleaned up his surroundings and then proceeded to dance around in the space he had cleared.
- I was completely struck by the power of the Great White Shark as it jumped through the air going after a seal.
- I laughed when the mama elephant nudged her sleeping baby to get up and keep walking.
- I nearly cried when a different baby elephant got lost in a sand storm, found its mothers tracks, but followed them the wrong way.
I felt connected with these other mom’s. I understood their protectiveness and sacrifice. I wondered if they would feel sadness at the loss of their young or just move on. I admired their strength and hoped I would have a fraction of their strength as Zoe’s mom.
I wondered where the heck the female emperor penguin was the entire time the male carried its egg on top of its feet/ under its belly. I sarcastically asked if she was at the day spa or out shopping. Daniel actually sat up a little bit taller on the couch and smiled (he may have nodded too). He felt a kinship with the male emperor penguins that were taking care of their newly hatched babies. That completely melted my heart – imagining Daniel caring for Zoe.
We finished the first episode happy with our purchase. We’d saved a lot of money on it since it was 20% off, plus another 10% off because I had a shopping day and then another $29 off because we shop too much at Borders. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend buying or renting it – my quick summaries of some of the things we saw don’t even touch on how amazing I think this program is.
* We realize the chances of Zoe thinking watching "Planet Earth" with her parents is cool are very slim. In fact, we’ve noted quite a few times that our child is going to reach an age where we are the opposite of cool. She’s going to think we’re geeks (and not in the affectionate way we consider ourselves to be geeks) and we’re OK with that. If she is anything like her mom was, there will be no shortage of exasperated sighs and the rolling of the eyes. She’ll huff and puff and try to block us out with her headphones. But we’ll keep trying because that’s what parents do. Hopefully she’ll look back at everything we tried to show and teach her and be glad we did. A parent can hope, right?
In the meantime, I’m still cherishing every moment of this pregnancy – even the back and muscle aches and lack of sleep.
In the meantime, I’m looking forward to getting to love and take care of this little one.
In the meantime, we’ll just laugh about what it will be like to parent a teen because what else can we do? We’re in this for the long haul. We’ll be fine. Oy.
We seriously discussed this at great length. How we thought Zoe would think it was cool*. How it would be a learning experience for her. We completely justified making the purchase because we were doing it for our baby - Our baby who will not be watching Planet Earth for years to come, but whatever. We were also buying it because we wanted to watch it, so we watched the first episode last night.
The views were gorgeous. The camera work was amazing. The animals were intriguing to watch. And I didn’t cry once. Well, I almost did, but I toughened up.
- I did squeal (seriously, I did) when the mama polar bear came out of her den and her two cubs followed her. I made a “aw” face when the narrator said she’d lost half of her body weight during hibernation and that even though she was hungry, her first task was feeding her cubs.
- I almost hid my eyes during two hunts, but I forced myself to watch.
- I laughed at the funny birds – especially the one who cleaned up his surroundings and then proceeded to dance around in the space he had cleared.
- I was completely struck by the power of the Great White Shark as it jumped through the air going after a seal.
- I laughed when the mama elephant nudged her sleeping baby to get up and keep walking.
- I nearly cried when a different baby elephant got lost in a sand storm, found its mothers tracks, but followed them the wrong way.
I felt connected with these other mom’s. I understood their protectiveness and sacrifice. I wondered if they would feel sadness at the loss of their young or just move on. I admired their strength and hoped I would have a fraction of their strength as Zoe’s mom.
I wondered where the heck the female emperor penguin was the entire time the male carried its egg on top of its feet/ under its belly. I sarcastically asked if she was at the day spa or out shopping. Daniel actually sat up a little bit taller on the couch and smiled (he may have nodded too). He felt a kinship with the male emperor penguins that were taking care of their newly hatched babies. That completely melted my heart – imagining Daniel caring for Zoe.
We finished the first episode happy with our purchase. We’d saved a lot of money on it since it was 20% off, plus another 10% off because I had a shopping day and then another $29 off because we shop too much at Borders. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend buying or renting it – my quick summaries of some of the things we saw don’t even touch on how amazing I think this program is.
* We realize the chances of Zoe thinking watching "Planet Earth" with her parents is cool are very slim. In fact, we’ve noted quite a few times that our child is going to reach an age where we are the opposite of cool. She’s going to think we’re geeks (and not in the affectionate way we consider ourselves to be geeks) and we’re OK with that. If she is anything like her mom was, there will be no shortage of exasperated sighs and the rolling of the eyes. She’ll huff and puff and try to block us out with her headphones. But we’ll keep trying because that’s what parents do. Hopefully she’ll look back at everything we tried to show and teach her and be glad we did. A parent can hope, right?
In the meantime, I’m still cherishing every moment of this pregnancy – even the back and muscle aches and lack of sleep.
In the meantime, I’m looking forward to getting to love and take care of this little one.
In the meantime, we’ll just laugh about what it will be like to parent a teen because what else can we do? We’re in this for the long haul. We’ll be fine. Oy.
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