UPDATE 4: Television

According to the staff, the kids in the orphanage would occasionally watch music-themed cartoons during their music class.  Now that we're back home, we haven't exposed Elena to much television.  That's not from any deep discomfort in the idea, but more just because our television is up in the attic, away from the rest of the house, and it's inconvenient to head on up there.  We tend not to watch much TV.

There have been a few exceptions, however.

One is watching football.  I took Elena upstairs with me to watch part of a game.  We've blocked off the attic stairs with a baby gate (they're pretty steep), so it was new and exciting territory for her.  I flipped on the television and told her what to watch.  The conversation went something like this:

"Ready, Elena? Ready? Watch...go! Run-run-run-run-run-BOOM."
"OooOOOooooo." (Delighted laugh) "More football?"
"Sure. Wait a minute. Ready?..."

Repeated a few dozen times.  She eventually tired of watching the screen, but the upstairs was still novel, and she played up there for a half hour or so.  After that, she's asked to "watch football?" multiple times, and we've done so occasionally.  I half-suspect that she thinks "football" might mean "television," but she's also correctly identified football on the radio, so perhaps not.

The other exception is watching Russian cartoons via YouTube.  We thought she might recognize some, and at least be familiar with the cadence of the language.  We started with Cheburashka, an iconic Soviet stop-motion cartoon.  It's supposedly as familair to Russians as Bugs Bunny or Cookie Monster would be to Americans.  We bought a talking Cheburashka doll in Moscow (which Elena loves), so it was an easy place to start.  Elena sat on my lap and we watched a few episodes on YouTube. She liked them, but there aren't very many, so as I was looking around for more, I stumbled across "Masha i Medved."

Cheburashka doll

"Masha i Medved" ("Masha and the Bear"" is a pretty recent 3D cartoon; you can check out on this Youtube channel, or, if you're daring, on the official Russian "Masha i Medved" page (ummm... ignore the advertisements on the right-hand side).  My personal favorite episode is "Ski!": beautifully told in reverse, from different viewpoints and with almost no words.  Teresa likes the "Masha and Kasha" episode.  (kasha is oatmeal.)  Masha i Medved is based on a traditional Russian folktale about a girl who wanders into the woods and stumbles upon a bear's house.  The cartoon version is something of a twist, though; as a hint, Masha calls the bear "Mishka," which means "teddy bear" as opposed to a real bear. 

Masha

In any case, Lena loves the cartoon.  In part, I suspect, because she identifies with the main character.  Here, see for yourself:

Masha i Lena

So this prompted a Christmas gift this year: Elena's getting a small portable DVD player and a couple Russian DVDs, so she can watch Masha (or Cheburashka) most any time she wants.

Merry Christmas.