As previously mentioned, Siena has a couple of They Might Be Giants albums for kids, including two that are packaged in both CD and DVD form. These are Here Come the ABCs and Here Comes Science. The DVD of each contains the songs on the CD plus other songs, with accompanying videos suitable for kids.

The existence of both a CD and a DVD of the same album poses some linguistic challenges. With Sesame Street videos, for instance, we always watch them. We don’t just listen. Ditto for the Wallace and Gromit movies. Similarly, we only ever listen to “Music Class Music,” which is on a CD. But for these two TMBG albums, there is always a choice of whether to listen to it or watch it. I should also draw a distinction regarding the videos, because some videos like the Sesame Street playlists, are watched only on a computer (we don’t have any fancy gadgets like Roku or Boxee or a TV that can stream internet video, heck our TV is a 27″ curved CRT from 1997), while others, like Wallace and Gromit and other movies, are watched on our TV.

Hence, at some point when Mama or I was asking Siena whether she wanted to listen to the CD of Here Come the ABCs or watch the DVD, the involved parental party said something along the lines of, “Do you want to listen to Here Come the ABCs or watch it as a movie?” Meaning, probably, on the TV, since Siena was largely into Sesame Street on the computer at that point.

So now, watching videos on TV for Siena is expressed with the phrase, “watch as a movie.” As in, “when we get home I want to watch Here Comes Science as a movie” and “can we watch that as a movie?”

This is one of those times when I cannot make it nearly as funny or endearing in writing as it is when she is saying it.