There's always an exception

We don't watch a lot of TV in our house, especially when Kallen is awake. It's not that we're against it or anything, just against the mood it puts Kallen in. I find that if we have the TV on, our focus isn't solely on Kallen and it definitely reflects in his attitude. He gets into things he knows he's not supposed to, cries and whimpers about nothing, and sometimes gets physical by hitting or scratching at us. I never really knew what was going on until I realized that every time we were watching a program, or just had the "tube" on...he started to act this way. I used to turn the TV on as soon as I got up in the morning, if for nothing else...the background noise. Well, I decided to try an experiment. I set up the TV to tape any shows I would normally watch, and didn't actually turn it on all day. What do you know...a relaxed and calm day. Kids are supposed to like TV, right??? Wrong. I guess not all kiddos do! I even tried a few cartoons thinking maybe he'd like that. Nope. He will watch something for maybe 60 seconds, then he's off and running again! I guess that's good. Better that he didn't like the TV then be hooked on it and always wanting to watch it right?

Well...there's always an exception! We got a Baby Einstein video from someone as a present, and one day when Dawson was over I thought I'd try it out. I needed to put D to bed, but Kallen was being really needy, and didn't want me to hold Dawson without holding him also. Have you ever tried to rock a 5 month old to sleep, while holding a squirming/talking 1 year old...yeah...not to much fun. So anyways, I set the video up, just to see what would happen...Kallen was hooked. He watched that whole silly video and loved it! D did too as you can tell.

I was able to rock Dawson to sleep and lay him down. Shut off the video and go back to playing with Kallen. It was great!

Then just today, that same old needy Kiddo came out right at dinner making time. When I'm making something that doesn't involve the knives or heat, I normally let Kallen help...but chopping veggies, and making soup on the stove while baking muffins in the oven...I didn't think was the best thing to have Kallen involved in. Fancy that. So, in went the trusty Baby Einstein, I got dinner all chopped and cooking, and everything was "easy peasy"! I never wanted to use the TV or movies as a baby sitter, but sometimes you just need a minute or two to get things done!