Most parenting literature advises against any television or computer viewing for children under the age of two. I know some parents who never have the TV on when their child is in the room, but we sure aren’t that disciplined. Tate saw some peripheral Food Network and Project Runway, not to mention that I was frequently emailing or online while nursing him.

Then right around the time that he turned one, a new study revealed that TV in moderation wasn’t so bad, and it also wasn’t so good (i.e. educational programs won’t boost your kid’s IQ).*

I jumped on the bandwagon (just as I did when they decided that peanut butter was okay again), and every so often when I’m wiped out, we plop down on the couch together to watch something on PBS or Nickolodeon.

Well, at least that’s what I would like to do. When I suggest watching TV, Tate gets excited and says “oooh, oooh, oooh” like a monkey, for Curious George. Other than the day he was completely lethargic from the stomach flu, Curious George & Sesame Street are the only shows that hold his attention. After a few minutes of Arthur, Kai Lan, Martha Speaks or anything else, he’s off running again.

So do you think George or Sesame are EVER on when I want some quality couch time? No, never! I’ve actually considered getting TiVo just so that I can have them at my beck and call.

But now, finally, I’m getting the point of my post…Tate and I were having a snack today and flipping through the Fisher Price catalog. I asked “Who’s that?”, thinking he’d notice the Ernie toy. He has an Ernie figurine and loves it. Instead he noticed the Elmo toy and said clear as a bell, “Elmo!”

What?! He’s seen Elmo on TV twice at the most in his life. We have no Elmo dolls, no Elmo books, no Elmo artwork in his nursery. And come to think of it, his ooh-oohs show that he tuned into that famous monkey about as readily.

That, my friends is marketing. They know, those children’s TV geniuses, what our children like. I’m not at all saying they’re evil geniuses, but they definitely know what they’re doing- how to connect with our children and how to make them fall in love. 

It makes me a little nervous, frankly.

What do you think about TV for your kids? Love it? It’s great in moderation? Hate it? No TV in your home? I’d love to hear how you’ve handled the issue with kids of all ages.

*PS – When I Googled the televsion study, it turns out that the focus was more on the “it’s not going to boost IQ” than on the “it won’t harm them” side. This post (with a few swear words, sorry Mom!) from DaddyTypes makes me think I bought into the Baby Einstein marketing this time. Maybe I need to look into that peanut butter thing again too…

Photos Courtesy:
jsmjr
creativedc

What do you know about woot?

No, that’s not a typo or my latest attempt at Dr. Seussisness. Woot is a funny little website that sells one product at a great price each day: it goes online at midnight and if it hasn’t sold out, it’s pulled from the “shelf” at 11:59pm that same night. For instance, today’s product, a funky power strip, sold out around 6am.

In addition to the main woot site, there are woots for shirts and wine. They have really creative/sarcastic writers doing the product descriptions each day, usually good for a chuckle if not an outright belly laugh.

“But Kara,” you ask, “why are you talking about woot on your mommy blog?” Well, I’m glad you asked! It’s because a kids version of woot was released last month.

Today’s product is the Buildin’ to Learn Motor/Workshop for just $49.99. This same toy workbench is selling for $99.99 on the Little Tikes website, so it’s a fantastic deal. Other products have ranged from DVDs to electronic toys to car seats.

Put the kids woot blog in your blog reader if you don’t feel like checking the site at midnight every night. You’ll know if that day’s product is still available because the button will say “I want one” instead of “sold out”.

Happy Wooting!

P.S. I’m not getting any kickbacks from woot; I just think it’s a fun site!

Photo Courtesy:
Little Tikes website

Do you rotate the toys in your house? By rotating, I mean packing away a portion of the toys, then bringing them back out in a few weeks and packing others away. Rather than kids being overwhelmed by too many toys, they’re enjoying just a few and often getting “new” things to play with. Plus, fewer toys means less cleanup time!

I was reminded of the brilliance of this exercise when Tate’s friend Jack was over last week. Jack was enjoying Tate’s stash of toys, but as he pulled cars and balls out of bins, Tate was equally enthralled. These are things that haven’t interested him in months.

It reminded me of the slogan NBC used for their re-runs one summer, “If you haven’t seen it, it’s new to you!”.

That night after Jack left, I got the stored toys out and packed away others. Even I was excited to find some things I’d forgotten about. And of course Tate was thrilled to see “new” things the next morning.

My problem is that usually several months pass in between my rotations, during which time Tate has outgrown some of the toys. It always seems like too much of an effort to get the stored items out of the basement and pack others away (yes, I’m that lazy!).

That’s why I love this idea from Janna at The Adventure of Motherhood: She has 4 separate toy bags and rotates them every few days. It keeps her daughter engaged, or as Janna put it, “it feels like Christmas morning every morning!”. I think the quicker rotations would be easier for me to keep up with.

Do you have any good toy rotation strategies?

Photo Courtesy:
hsingy

Laying Tate down tonight, I marveled at how long he has become. When he scrunched up his little newborn legs, his toes barely reached my belly button. Lately, I have to give a little extra oomph on my tiptoes to get his feet over the crib rail. Having just passed his first birthday, I find myself marveling at a lot of “look how far we’ve come” things…

The biggest one is sleep. We were not blessed with a naturally good sleeper, and definitely made some parenting errors that made the situation worse. (Read the whole three-part saga, beginning with Our Sleep Journey.) But now, and for the last several months, this is not a struggle. He goes to bed around 7pm, wakes for an early-morning feeding, sleeps a little more and is up for the day around 7am. We can even have babysitters put him to bed. It’s wonderful!

Another one is food: from the first watery rice cereal at four months to the sudden demand for all finger food (Don’t Spoonfeed Me!), he’s now eating a lot of the same things we eat. Advice from many of you has been really encouraging- Allison, you said to try the spoon again every once in awhile. Sure enough, he’s been willing to do yogurt, avocados and now applesauce. Lisa, you told me how you mixed the rice cereal flakes with Bisquick to make pancakes good enough for the whole family. (I’m using up my ground Super Baby Food grains for this.) John, frozen peas are a hit! The self-feeding is obviously more messy, but it’s also pretty fun to see him enjoy new things, especially things I wouldn’t think a baby would like- BBQ meatballs, pepper jack cheese, parmesan risotto. Plus while he eats, I can usually make a quick meal for myself.

In Tate’s first few weeks of life, I hardly ever bathed him because it was such a traumatic ordeal for both of us. The nurse had done such a good job of holding him and getting him clean in that little plastic tub at the hospital, but I quickly realized that I was not as skilled. Once we switched to the infant tub with a hammock-style attachment, voila, bathtime was happytime! (Even though he doesn’t look super-happy in this picture.) Eventually we moved into the real bath tub. I laid him on his back in just an inch of water and he kicked his little legs furiously, surprised when he’d occasionally splash himself in the face. Now it’s all playtime- toys, splashing, “Tate, we don’t stand up in the tub!”, etc.

There are lots of other fun things, like playing with toys and reading books, instead of him simply eating both of them. He understands many directions and loves to be a helper.

And of course some not-so-fun things, generally associated with asserting independence and opinions-  cries that say “I want that and I want it now!” or “Mom, why are you setting me down when I know you can brush your teeth while you’re holding me?”. I’ve noticed that we have far fewer pictures of the last few months, largely because when I pull out the camera, he wants to grab it instead of being in a picture.

We bought more plastic bins last week, to hold the latest round of outgrown clothes. They’re lined up next to the infant car seat, the baby bath tub, and the sleep positioner. Each item had a period in which it was essential, and now they wait to be needed by a someday-little brother or sister.

Remembering all these changes suggests that maybe this first year hasn’t gone by as fast as it feels. I can’t wait to see what the next year will hold!

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I’m getting bored with our toys. Tate hasn’t been complaining, but I’m definitely getting bored. With Christmas just around the corner, it seems silly to run out to the toy store. And why spend money at all, when there are certainly things around our house that would be fun and entertaining for him (and maybe for me too!). I remember when we were young, my mom would send us outside to “paint the house” with a bucket of water. Clever woman!

The iParenting site has some great ideas for both infants and older kids. I know the keyboard idea would be a big hit with my son- he’s always trying to hit keys when I’m typing. Honestly, with just a couple of swipes the other day, he changed my homepage from MSN to Google and added some kind of Google search box to my footer bar. Anyway, there are probably a couple of keyboards in our basement that could be dusted off and put into circulation in the toybox. Tate will be thrilled.

I love the idea of a homemade color book from Kim on the MommySavers site. She took pictures of her daughter wearing blue clothes and using a blue toothbrush, for example, and put them into an inexpensive photo album. We have a board book about colors, but it would be so fun to have one with pictures of Tate and other special people in his life. I already have a picture ready for the Orange page!

There are tons of crafty ideas at MakeBabyStuff.com. When I stumbled upon this page with “upcycled” baby blocks, I was reminded that when we were little, my parents made my brother and me a huge collection of blocks out of half-gallon cardboard milk cartons. Hmm, why am I bothering to search for this stuff on the internet? I should just call my mom for ideas! In the meantime, with the addition of wallpaper, these blocks are cute, and can be cleaned with a quick wipe-down. Amber gives really clear instructions, along with pictures, on her site. I’m going to start saving my cardboard boxes right now! I’ll get to have fun making toys, and he can have fun playing with them. Bye-bye, boring!

Photo Courtesy:
sfllaw
Amber Dusick

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