Dodged a bullet

Lately Charlie has been a bit cranky and clingy in the morning, making it difficult for me to get anything done.  So I've tried introducing him to the ubiquitous object we all love to hate: the television.  Sesame Street is my first choice - I remember growing up with it so it must be good.  Without me or Coulson sitting with him watching the show, his interest doesn't last longer than 2 minutes.  For me, the idiot box is strictly a baby-sitter.  If I have to sit down and watch it with him, it's not worth it and I'm not going to try too hard to get him to watch TV.  So he'll watch it for a few minutes and then he'll join me wherever I am and start unfolding the laundry that I was folding.  But when the music for Elmo's World starts, he'll run to the TV and start watching.  For those of you who don't have toddlers of your own (...yet) Elmo's World is a sub-show of Sesame Street that runs during the last 20 minutes of the show.  It has it's own theme song and everything.  I've heard that Elmo's World is especially designed for the younger toddlers. I don't know how they do that, but it works.  Elmo's World was also Coulson's first favorite show.  (Perhaps we should refer to it as the gateway drug for television addiction.)

Barney follows Sesame Street, so I make sure to turn off the TV after Sesame Street.  But yesterday I really needed to clean the bathrooms and I didn't want Charlie following me around while I was using the cleaners and stuff.  That and he likes to scrub the toilet with his toothbrush.  So I missed the end of Sesame Street and before I knew it, everyone's favorite purple dinosaur was singing sappy songs to him.  I looked at him and he was engrossed.  I said to myself, "Self, you're going to regret this."  Thankfully, after 15 minutes he was done with Barney and I was done with the bathrooms, so I quickly turned off the TV.  But I was worried about what would happen when I tried to clean the bathrooms next week.

Mister Rogers' Neighborhood follows Barney.  I also grew up with Mister Rogers, so this show is also very good.  We caught the last 15 minutes of it today and I was surprised that he seemed to like it.  So maybe I'll just clean the bathrooms a half hour later next week.  And I just discovered that the website has links to his wonderful songs!!!  Casey and I will be singing these all week!