Emma is completely obsessed with the Discovery Health Channel. Baby Story, Adoption Story, Wedding Story, The People Who Are Just Plain Odd Story (ok, I made that one up.) She loves loves loves "discovery healf". She has abandoned many of her standby favorites, SpongeBob, Olie, etc in favor of Rescue 911 and "The Critical Hour". Sometimes there's invaluable lessons in these shows. This evening, I told her about a Rescue 911 show that I saw earlier today where a little boy who was 5 years old (I stressed that..heh) who was messing around and fell into a swimming pool and nearly drowned. His 8 year old sister called 911 and he was ok.

She was completely fascinated by the story and wanted to know all about his outcome. She will ask the same question in 10 different forms. I think it's because she is just so intent on understanding, and is so genuinely interested that she wants to make sure she has every fact. And if she doesn't understand what you've said, she'll ask it a different way..

Why did he fall in the pool?
He was messing around, I said....Remember, I told you he was being dangerous and jumped in the pool without an adult nearby.
Why?
He was just being naughty.
And he fell in the pool?
Yup.
Did he have injuries? (she loves that word)
I'm not sure, but he did stop breathing
Why?
Because people can't stay under the water very long, we need to breathe air.
Why?
Because.
How did he get out?
Remember, I told you his sister called 911
Why?
So the police would come and get him out of the pool so he could breathe air again.
Who did his sister call? (See, here she's getting curious about 911. heh. Perfect moment)

So we spent the next few minutes talking about 911. How to do it, what to say and how to listen carefully. I don't think she's quite got it yet, but almost.

But on a side note...
She has now become enamored with...The Food Network. She knows who Emeril is, who Martha Stewart is, and who Tyler Florence is. She loves the Food Network. If it's Martha, she always makes me stop the remote if we're cruising channels. Months ago, if I turned off her cartoons to watch Martha, she would throw a fit and I would say "Let's just see what she's doing"... and now she uses that same line on me! Today it was a particular Martha I'd seen at least twice, but she said.."ooh! Martha!" and I said "I've already seen this one" and sure enough she said: Let's just see what she's doing.."

She gets very annoyed that Mark does not know who Emeril is, when she tries to relay what the days recipe was.

She's starting to get into Iron Chef, but it's a long slow show, and the most interesting parts are the one's only adults who love dry subtle humor can appreciate. Other than the occasional interesting ingredient, the show doesn't hold much attention for her. If you don't know the show - Iron Chef poses two expert Asian chefs against each other in a one-hour race and taste contest. They are both given one ingredient that they must incorporate into - I think - 4 dishes. Ingredients like... yogurt. Or...eggs, or something more exotic like Octopus. It is completely over the top hilarious, the judges, the chefs, (cheves?) and the announcer even, are all so completely wired up on adrenaline, you can't help but get wrapped up in the frenzy.

And then the comments from the 4 judges at the end send me right over the edge. The comments are dubbed, and the interpretation is choppy. The translator's voice is too syruppy pleasant for the comment being made. Expressionless, too.

"I don't care for the octopus ice cream."
"I've never swallowed anything that tasted quite like that."
"It is bursting in my mouth."
"I could eat some more of this".

The Iron Chef message board this week lists these topics:

"Yogurt battle, he should've gone indian"
"Now there was a nasty ingredient"
"Least Favorite Ingredients"
"Did you think Sakai would have won?"

It's sheer insanity.