Emily is big into Muppets this month. I introduced her to The Muppet Show a couple of years ago, but I guess she was too young. I tried again last month and she’s hooked! She’s watching the Muppet Show, Fraggle Rock, drawing all of the characters, singing the songs, and is absolutely fascinated with puppeteering. I even managed to find some copies of the records I used to listen to when I was her age and put the MP3s on her player. Pretty awesome.

In putting her to bed last night, we had this conversation:

Emily: Who invented The Muppets?

Me: A man named Jim Henson.

Emily: Is he still alive?

Me: No, he’s not.

Emily: Did he die because he had a bad cough?

Me: (amazed) Yes! How did you know that??

Emily: Mummy told me.

Me: Oh.

Emily: A cough isn’t that bad. How did he really die?

Me: Well, you see, he got very sick and didn’t go to the doctor. So he didn’t get better and his cough turned into a bad sickness and he died.

Emily: Why didn’t he go to the doctor?

Me: I don’t know.

Emily: (thinks for a while) Jim Henson may have been a great actor but he wasn’t very clever.