As is painfully clear from posts like this and this and this, the Serpick family is hopelessly obsessed with Elmo. This week, we made our second annual pilgrimage to Sesame Place, the theme park 30 miles north of Philadelphia where Elmo and all the other Sesame Street characters live.

As with last year, we had a blast on all the rides and Jack (2 1/2 years old) was much more into the water attractions this year. There is a mid-afternoon parade where all the characters march down Sesame Street: Jack high-fived Cookie Monster and Rosita tickled Benny's (7 months) belly.

But the highlight, as with last year, was Elmo's World Live, a stage production of Elmo's World (the Elmo-centric 15 minutes that end every episode of Sesame Street). On our way into the theater, a stage manager pulled us aside and asked if Benny would appear on the "Ask a Baby" segment of the show! On every Elmo's world, Elmo asks a couple kids a question like, how do you put on a jacket, or how do you get cocktail sauce out of red fur (depending on the theme), and at the end, he always asks a baby. The best babies just giggle and smile and Brenda and I have always said the particularly smiley Benny would be great for "Ask a Baby".

Sure enough, at the appointed time, Elmo asked Benny, "How do you swim like a fish?" (fish was the theme today). Right on cue, Benny unleashed a dazzling smile and a couple giggles, to a deafening "awwwww!" from the crowd. He also clenched Elmo's fur so hard that the red monster had to yank his arm several times to break free. Benny left with a nice chunk of red polyester—free souvenir!

Anyway, we highly recommend the place, and I humbly ask you to keep voting for Learning to Crawl for Best Baltimore Parents' Blog ever day until July 15th!

[top: Me and Jack, about two years ago]

[bottom: Jack recently, trying to duckwalk like Angus from AC/DC]

  My 2 1/2-year-old toddler Jack wants to be a rock star. As an aging wanna-be rock star myself, I couldn't be happier about this. Some day, in some way, one member in this family will be a rock star!

As you can see from these photos, I've tried to foster a love of rock n roll since birth. Jack's current collection of instruments rivals that of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. He owns two guitars, a ukelele, a drum set (in addition to several individual drums), a piano, a harmonica, a tamborine, a trumpet, many maracas, a xylophone, an authentic mbira (thumb piano) from East Africa, and a cowbell—oh, and a mini violin is currently on order at a local store. We also go to a music class together (which I wrote about here), and take every opportunity to hear live music, most recently at Eco-Fest in Druid Hill Park.

Sufice it to say, all of my hard work has paid off: Jack is obsessed with music. His favorite game is "band," wherein he distributes instruments to everyone in the room, counts off ("one, two, free and..."), and everyone jams. He ends every performance raising his arms and saying "Thank you very much!" Wherever he is, any raised platform—a step, toy chest, a box of diapers—becomes a stage. He mounts it, holds an imaginary microphone and announces "I want to sing a song about Mommy" (everyone in the room gets a song eventually). The songs often have similar lyrics, somthing like "Mommy, Mommy, I love Mommy/Mommy, Mo-mmy! Thank you very much!"

Recently, Jack and I discovered that Comcast's "On Demand" offerings include live concert clips featuring everyone from Cat Stevens, the Who, and AC/DC to Green Day and the White Stripes. These clips immediately replaced "Sesame Street" as Jack's favorite thing to watch on TV. "I want to see guitars!" Jack now insists at all hours of the day or night. Of course, I prefer this to "Sesame Street" as well, so most mornings, Jack and I watch a few clips before breakfast.

The problem began when Jack took a particular liking to an old clip of AC/DC performing "Highway to Hell." He would run around the house—and in public—sing-screaming, "Imona high-way to hell!" I found this amusing and adorable—and potentially, one step closer to vicarious rock stardom—but others had different opinions. I was having dinner with my sister and her kids when Jack started singing his favorite song. My adorable, precocious 8-year-old niece Morgan was stunned.

"Did he just say H-E-L-L?" she asked.

"Yeah. Is that bad?" I asked, worried about the answer.

"You're a terrible father!

Well, that may be overstating it, I thought. He doesn't know what that word is, I explained. He's just singing the sounds he hears. And besides, this was Bon Scott-fronted AC/DC in its prime! What rock and roll education would be complete without that?

Sadly for me, my sister agreed that the song was inappropriate, so "Highway to Hell" is off the playlist—for now. It's only a matter of time before "Mommy" becomes a number-one hit anyway, and then he can listen to whatever he wants.

While you're here, please click here to vote for Learning to Crawl as the best Baltimore-based parenting blog. I'm down to 25 percent in the polls! You can vote once a day until July 15th....

When I called Debbie Phelps to talk about her new book, A Mother For All Seasons, she was leading a staff meeting at Windsor Mill Middle School in West Baltimore, where she is the principal. “It’s okay, I can step out,” she says. “They’re doing a brainstorming session about next school year.”

While her staff thought about next Fall, Ms. Phelps reflected on her revealing new book, the Beijing Olympics, raising an Olympian, and that photo of her son Michael smoking pot. “Is he human? Yes, he’s human,” she says, in reference to the incident. “Some people think he has these super-human powers, but he’s a human being.”

Debbie Phelps will be hosting a book signing at the Barnes and Noble in Ellicott City this Saturday, May 9th, at 2 p.m. You can also read an excerpt of the book here.

ES: When you think back on the Olympics last year, what moments really stand out to you?

DP: To watch Michael go into Beijing and execute the racing platform that he and Bob [Bowman, Michael’s coach] worked for together for so long, to be able to go to another country and live in that culture, among that people, it’s so rewarding and uplifting in itself. I remember walking through Olympic village in Beijing and looking at the architecture and listening to the people. One of the most rewarding things is going to the Olympic Games and having the world around you, everyone is at peace, everyone is in unity, everybody is one. You look to your right, you look to your left, front and back and you hear the world around you. You hear Russian, you hear Italian, you hear Spanish, and they’re all there for one thing, watching their country perform at the highest level. But you know, every race had a story, every race had a special moment in it and a special reflection as my daughter and I sat there in the stands watching Michael do what he has loved to do since he was a little guy.

ES: One of the moments that meant a lot to people back home was, after each race, when he would bring you the bouquet.

DP: Yeah. Every time he goes into a competition and I’m there, he comes to see me after a race, whether it’s in Indianapolis or another part of the world. I remember after the 200 Free [in Beijing], him talking to Peter Vanderkaay, saying “I don’t know where my mom is. I can’t find my mom.” I read his lips on the Jumbotron. It was very, very special. Often in competition, he gives me the first one, if Hillary or Whitney are they, they get the second and third, and then I tell him to throw it into the stands, make a fan really happy and give them the excitement that we get.

ES: But he didn’t do that this time. You got them all.

DP: No he didn’t. Yeah, we did get them all. I think every race was a moment in history, being able to write that history book, as to what he was able to do. Every race had to be executed almost with perfection and to watch him do that, day after day, night after night, it was just very rewarding for me as his mom.

ES: Growing up with him, was there a moment when you realized how great his potential was?

DP: When Michael was little, I had people in the stands say to me “He’s gonna be something someday, you wait Ms. Phelps.” Did I really realized it? No, because I was juggling three kids, one in college, one in high school, one in middle school. They were all going different directions, they all had different responsibilities. I was working, I was getting my masters. We were just rolling through. I would go from baseball diamonds to lacrosse fields to swimming pools.

ES: How have things changed in your daily life since the Olympics?

DP: Well, I’m trying to run a staff meeting while doing an interview, for one thing. It’s just trying to fit things together. Our family, in general, people want to invite us to different events. Saturday, I was in Annapolis, speaking at a children’s fair, then doing a book-signing, then yesterday we were the host family at a run in Washington for brain research, so our lives are much more demanding. I’ve enjoyed the opportunity to go out and meet new people and speak on behalf of some loves and passions that I have. I believe very strongly in children. I speak on ADHD, with Michael’s ADHD issue. Just being able to go and help people, I think people need to do that more. I’ve had people tell me that after the Olympic games, it all just came at the right time. Michael’s performance, their showcasing of our family—we had no idea that was happening. We’re sitting at a venue in the stands and we don’t see cameras. It wasn’t until somebody e-mailed us or text-messaged us and they’d say “Saw you on TV,” “We’re so happy for you,” or “We’re so proud of you.” We’ve definitely become a lot more high-profile as possible, but keeping ourselves as normal as possible. I get up every morning and I go to work. I love my job and I work very hard at my job. It’s being able to balance all the things that I do on weekends to get a voice out.

ES: Obviously Michael has been under intense scrutiny since the Olympics, which has led to some high-profile negative incidents. Has it been difficult for you to watch him endure the scrutiny?

DP: Are you a dad?

ES: Yes.

DP: And how would you feel if that was your son or daughter?

ES: I think it would be difficult.

DP: I feel the very same way. It’s not easy being a parent, but we’re a parent through good times and bad times. We’re a parent through rough spots or smooth spots. I have the same voice with all my kids, it just so happens Michael’s face gets all over world. It’s just that continuous love, guidance, and support that we give our children. My response to this is, Is he human? Yes, he’s human. Some people think he has these super-human powers, but he’s a human being. And I don’t care who you look at, whether it’s myself or you or Michael or a high-profile celebrity in Hollywood, we all have obstacles in our way. As a parent, what I do when an obstacle gets in the way of my own children or my children here at school, it’s where do we go from here? What do we do next? Do we accept that obstacle or do we move forward? And that’s the voice that many parents around the world, just like myself, bring to our home, bring to our dining room table, bring to my school house here. You can be a champion when everything’s going well, but what happens when something goes wrong? How do you get through that? What have you learned from it? It hasn’t been easy for any of us. It’s hard, when you get thrown a curveball.

ES: In the book, when you talk about that photograph that came out, you talk about how you were proud of Michael and the way he dealt with that. Was that a result of the way you raised him?

DP: Absolutely. You know, my mom died after Athens and it was very difficult, and my father died when I was going into my sophomore year of college. As I go from day-to-day and I make decisions and solve problems, I say to my kids and my closest friends, “Oh my God, I am my mother. I am so my mom.” I grew up in a very loving, caring home in western Maryland, in a very small town, everyone knew everyone’s business. My mom’s profession was raising her children. There were seven years between three of us. She took great pride in being a parent. She guided us. She taught me how to be a lady, how to have a strong work ethic, how to be determined, as my father was out there day-in, day-out being a contractor. And on Sundays, I’d watch football with him because I was a little tomboy. Those things I brought from the way I was raised into my own home with my children now. As I watch my daughter Whitney, I watch the values she brings into her home with her husband and my two grandchildren. It’s very rewarding to see that.

ES: How often do you talk to your kids these days?

DP: We’re emailing or texting every day, but actually meeting face-to-face or telephone calls, I would say Michael every 5 to 7 days—listening to his voice, that’s not texting because texting drives me insane. Hillary, my eldest, we talk almost every day, and Whitney, in communication verbally, I would say every 3 to 5 days.

ES: All of us in Baltimore are proud that Michael is coming back is going to make a home here, but you must be especially happy about that.

DP: You know, we’ve been involved in swimming for 20 years, that’s a long time to be in one sport and at the same swim club, so having Michael come back on the same pool deck that he ran around on as a little seven-year-old? Oh my gosh. And having my two daughters involved in the club, and as we launch Michael’s foundation, and looking at his swim schools, the business that he is looking forward to, it’s so rewarding to see your child—young man and young ladies—come back and do business where they grew up. I was at Meadowbrook a couple weeks ago and I’m standing there looking at this pool, thinking, “wow,” every one of my children swam in this pool. And now Bob and Michael—Bob’s the CEO of North Baltimore Aquatic Club—are back in training where he grew up. And I know this summer, the grandchildren are going to be at that pool too. There’s a lot of history in North Baltimore, in Meadowbrook. I’m just so happy to have he and Bob back. Even though Ann Arbor was great, Michigan was great—“Go Blue” and all that, it’s nice have everyone back home. It’s so much easier, if you want to do Sunday brunch or something like that, it’s very enlightening for me.

ES: What are your thoughts on Michael and 2012?

DP: I don’t know what Michael’s goals are for 2012. He called me and he said “We’re going four more years. Are you with me?” And I said “Absolutely.” A mother is always with her son or daughter, whatever next adventure or journey they want to go down and grab a hold of. I look forward to watching what Bob and Michael are able to put together, to be able to see exactly what Michael will be swimming. I love watching him swim 400 IM, I think he could take that time down some more. Who knows if he’s going to swim that. I know it’s going to be shorter distance, since he’s so old. That’s, like, so funny.

On Saturday, I took my 2.5-year-old Jack to the new dolphin show at the Aquarium, "Our Ocean Planet." We had seen the dolphins briefly once before, when the Aquarium had $1-admission for a weekend in December. On that occasion, us cheapskate plebes were only given the chance to watch the squeaky guys swim around during training. Still, Jack loved it. So when I got wind of a promotion with the Downtown Baltimore Family Alliance (a great group) to get free tickets to the new show's opening weekend, I jumped at the chance. (Once a cheapskate, always a cheapskate.)

We had to pick up tickets for the 11:30 show by 10 am, and the waiting proved tough for my toddler. He's still too young to really appreciate much of the aquarium: His favorite "exhibit" was the water tubes near the entrance, which make funny noises and feature floating bubbles. We got into the dolphin exhibition room at around 11, at which time Jack promptly crashed on my shoulder. Luckily I was sitting next to Joyce, the proprietor of one of my favorite local kid blogs, Kid Baltimore. We chatted until show time, when Jack woke up, reluctantly at first, but was quickly energized by the dolphins' acrobatic feats.

Throughout the half-hour show, the dolphins flipped, jumped over balls, perched their heads on the edge of the tank, let trainers ride them, and provided all manner of adorable fun. Joyce, who's kids are older, felt that the show could've used more educational content and less scripted patter and she's certainly right—the segment where bewildered kids were made to stand and wave flags in a tribute to global unity was painfully stilted and silly. But the educational content would have been lost on Jack anyway: We just wanted to see the big fishies do their back flips. Of course, he will likely be less impressed with the tricks on subsequent trips, so it would be great to see more substantive material in the future. Joyce's suggestion that they have a caretaker come out and talk about caring for the animals or take questions from the audience is a great idea.

Also, for a future post, I'm planning to round up some of the best web resources for local families—Kid Baltimore will certainly be one of the them. If you have suggestions, please leave them in the comments or email me: sevan@baltimoremagazine.net.

[photo courtesy daveb_md via flickr.com]