Dipsy Day

Despite my best efforts, Anna has taken a liking to the Teletubbies. It all happened because the Teletubbies programme immediately follows 'In the Night Garden' and, one day while I was on the toilet (too much information possibly!!), it came on and Anna was transfixed. Anna thinks it is hilarious and giggles so much that she has to lie down because she is laughing so hard!

Being the mean Mummy that I am, it is still a programme that I dislike (I can't see the educational value to it and think it encourages poor speech!) so quickly turn the TV off after her 'Night Garden' fix. However, her favourite CD is the C Beebies one, which we listen to in the car and it does happen to have the Teletubbies tune on it so Anna knows all the words!

After listening to the song several million times and watching the programme twice, she now knows the name of each teletubby. I didn't think there was much harm in that until yesterday.

Just so that you have a clear image in your head for the purposes of this blog post... this is a picture of the teletubby called Dipsy.

Yesterday afternoon, Anna and I are walking through the park. It is 3.30pm so we are meeting lots and lots of people as all the high school and primary school children make their way home. Being the sociable and friendly girl that Anna is, she insists that we say hello to each and every one of them. You can just imagine how thrilled I was when I saw 4 teenage boys hurtling towards us on their bikes and Anna stands directly in their path and shouts 'stop' whilst holding her hand above her head as though she is a policewoman! Thankfully, the teenagers were brilliant and screeched to a halt before I had to dive in and rescue her. They even said hello to her and one even shook her hand (to which Anna just jumped up and down with glee!) before they rode on.

So we carry on sauntering along when I see a lady coming in the opposite direction. This lady is wearing a velour tracksuit. A lime green velour tracksuit. A lime green remarkably similar to a certain teletubby.

Anna starts waving at her enthusiastically and I am none the wiser, just thinking what a wonderfully polite girl I have! As the lady gets closer, Anna starts saying Hello to which the lady, very kindly, says 'hello' back. Anna then replies with 'Hello Dipsy'.

I think I could have got away with it if we had managed to walk away at that second but, after no response, Anna turns to me and says. 'Dipsy' as she points to the lady. It is then that I pretend to look puzzled, hoping that the lady would not think anything more about it. With hindsight, I think that was a mistake because Anna could see that I looked puzzled. Therefore, to help me and make things clearer for me, Anna says 'Dipsy teletubby'... while patting the lady's tummy (which was a similar size to mine. I.e: Not small!!)

At this point, my brain was screaming to the ground.. 'open up and swallow me NOW'.

Thankfully, I think the lady was so taken with Anna 'being cute' that she didn't actually understand the teletubby reference. I hope!

For the duration of our walk, Anna and I then had an in-depth discussion (with me doing the talking and Anna ignoring me!) about the differences between a teletubby and a real human being.

I knew those Teletubbies would be trouble!