Plug In Plug

I don't know how well I iterated this in the last post, but Anonybabe was horrid to be around Friday. So much so that when she finally fell into a dead sleep of a nap at 4pm, I didn't wake her at 5...or 6...and at 7pm I thought, damn the torpedos, I'm just gonna let her sleep until she wakes up. I went to sleep at 9pm to both make up for the previous two nights' sleeplessness and to prepare for the middle of the night waking I was sure would come. I was reasonably well-rested by the time Anonybabe woke up around 2:30am this morning, ready to eat and play. We ate some oatmeal, I snoozed while she got to watch her obsession - Winnie the Pooh - and we went through our day red-eyed but relatively content.

That was a lot of exposition to say I let Anonybabe watch almost as much tv as she wanted to today. We went for several long outings - to the park, to the grocery store and the library - so she got lots of activity. But I didn't have the energy or the will to fight her when she chanted "Wa Pooh!" "Wa Pah-ee!" "Wa Yo!" (Watch Pooh, Elmo's Potty Time, and Pinnochio, respectively) over and over and over again. For one thing, I glimpsed the thin layer of skin that was getting bludgeoned through by a dull, rock of a tooth, and it didn't look fun. I would want to be distracted from that too. And for another thing, I've gotten very little sleep in the last few days. If watching tv kept her occupied and quiet today, I was happy.

I don't plan on every day being like this. I plan on enjoying her, on doing stuff together. The older she gets, the more fun this is. I really liked going to the farmer's market this morning, buying a muffin and sharing it with her as she swung her legs from a bus stop bench. But days like today make me question my general disdain for television watching for her. I yearned for television when I was a kid, and I learned a lot from it. Some of the things I learned were good, very important to me, I'm happy to say they shaped my interests and sense of humor and opened me up to the world beyond the little one I was born into. But the best things I learned in life were not from a television; they were mostly learned by time spent outside, playing by myself or with friends. I learned about nature, my personality, etc, etc. So I guess I want Anonybabe to have a little of both things. It's probably no accident that most of her speech so far centers around getting us to play her shows on the DVD player. I'm not ready to cut her off from that (especially since I'm not ready to cut myself off from the pleasure of my favorite shows). I'm continually learning about myself from the shows I love...I don't know. Can't Anonybabe too?