"Meetings are indispensable when you don't want to do anything." J K Galbraith

[anastasiav]

+ Bob the Builder seems to be slightly on the wane. Dora the Explorer is the new hotness.

Many days I'm irritated with myself that E get so much "screen time" (over two hours on Sunday alone). I wasn't going to be this mom. But then he begs and begs and begs and begs and begs. ("Ma - maaaa. I wanna watch a moooovvvviiiieeeee.....") *sigh*

+ A couple of weeks ago I got fed up with the unending pipeline of cold air that was pouring in from the kitchen to the living room, and thumbtacked a ratty pink blanket up in the doorway. It has changed our lives. The two rooms on the north-east side of the house (the living room and parlor) are now toasty warm. The rest of the house is its standard cold self, but I have a warm little cocoon where we can hang out and play.

+ I see my surgeon today at 345 pm. After that I'm going to the fabric store. I need to make a real curtain to replace the ratty pink blanket, and for two weeks I've wanted to make E some groovy pants.

+ We gave E a Z-bar (an organic snack bar by the Cliff Bar folks) and now its the only thing he wants to eat.

+ BIRKA!!!!! (I'm so very excited.)

Comments

[bubbette.livejournal.com]

Just keep track of how much television he's watching, and don't let him over-do it. Make him go and do other things...reading, activity, shovel the driveway... (smile)

[fianaclare.livejournal.com]

Check your local thrift store for either a good used blanket or some heavy drapes, and save yourself some time.

As for the TV: I don't think two hours of a movie--not broadcast television with commercials, but something you pick--is really that bad. I even watched three or four hours of broadcast television daily as a kid, and I turned out okay.

[anastasiav.livejournal.com]

I don't think two hours of a movie--not broadcast television with commercials, but something you pick--is really that bad. I even watched three or four hours of broadcast television daily as a kid, and I turned out okay.

Well, its technically broadcast (Bob is on PBS and Dora is Nick Jr, I think) but with Tivo and Video on Demand and suchlike its not like he's really seeing commercials or anything.

Josh and I were reflecting on how our home media center really increases his TV viewing - when we were kids, if I wanted to watch (say) SuperFriends I could watch it when it was on and that was it. Now we have more control over what he watches, but he's very aware that there are 15 episodes of Bob saved up for him to watch whenever he wants, and if he wants to watch them again (and again and again and again) then he can do that.

[pascual-del-mar.livejournal.com]

Winter is always gonna be tougher than summer. It's not like you can decide to go outside with him. So the winter he see's more TV. As long as you are making TV that helps to educate him, teaching him numbers, letters, reading, and stimulating his mind then i think you are doing alright.

In the grand scheme, 2 hours out of the what.. 12-14 that he's awake each day.. is only around 15% of the time. A trick that I learned with my son as he started to get older, was I bought him a CD player, and got some of the music CD's from Thomas, and other shows that he liked. And that lessened his dependance on the TV.

(Although i admit to being a bad dad, the TV durring our 2 hr drive from his house to mine when he was younger [2-5] was standard for keeping his attention and keeping him from sleeping, and then keeping me awake all nite after exhausted from 4 hours of driving.)

[anastasiav.livejournal.com]

Although i admit to being a bad dad, the TV durring our 2 hr drive from his house to mine when he was younger

See, in the car is one of the few times I honestly don't care how much video he watches. After all, he's strapped in a seat and he can't read yet. It would be cruel of us to expect him to be able to entertain himself for a 2-4 hour drive (or more) with just the kind of toys he can play with while pinned down in a car seat.

I'm not ashamed to say that he watched Winnie the Pooh eleven times in a row when we drove home from Pennsic last year. He was happy, entertained, and quiet, and it clearly made the time pass much faster for him.