Tuesday, April 13, 2010

In Which I Try to Justify TV as a Pacifier

Spring in North Carolina is magical and it's crazy not to take advantage of this window of perfect weather. Except for he odd day here and there, all winter we've been driving to work each day because it's too cold for a baby to be out for an hour in the jogger, or I can't get the kiddos ready early enough to walk or bike, or I have a meeting I can't be late for/leave early or something.

When I got home Saturday after 2 weeks away (a week in Texas, a week in Seattle), I stepped on the scale and discovered 7 pounds more of me than I expected to find. It isn't just water retention either. My clothes fit a little like peopleofwalmart.

So this week I'm not taking any excuses from the rug ramblers-- we are walking/running/biking to work at least 3 times a week. With daycare hours what they are, I pretty much have to stick to a 9-5 schedule or work late after the kids are in bed (which I usually do anyway).

Monday was not a big win. We left the house at 8:30. Pre-children, it used to take me 20 minutes to run to work. Now I have a double jogger with 2 kids and a tiny bicycle strapped into it to push up the hills, and drop offs at 2 different buildings add about 1/3 mile onto the distance. On a normal day, it takes about 50 minutes to an hour to get from my house to my office door. Monday it took 90 minutes. Why? Well, that little bike is for e-baby to ride once we get onto campus. She wanted to stop to look at pinecones, and squirrels, and birds, and leaves, and earthworms, and...

that will not work.

What I need is to keep e-baby in the jogger in the morning, and let her ride her bike home when we have more time. SNG had a brilliant idea: let her watch a movie on my phone. Added bonus: I get to listen to my iPod instead of the sound of 2 toddlers swatting at one another over Nilla Wafers and droolwars.

I tried out the plan this morning and it worked well. She was happy to watch some TV in the morning and to ride her bike home in the afternoon. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

In other news, Jambuca found a pair of e-baby's old shoes, some red knock-offs of Vans, and wants to wear them all the time. Never mind that they're a little too big, they are His Favorite Shoes. It's super sweet the way he brings me the shoes, squeaks a little (EH?) sound, and sticks out a foot which so obviously means "I wanna wear these!!"

The farm is thriving so far-- it's still too early for most of the pests, and the spinach tastes so much better freshly picked. Next weekend I'm going to put bird netting over the strawberry plants.

4 comments:

PartnerInCrime said...

Wait, were you supposed to feel guilty for handing e-baby your phone? Because you know I regularly give C-girl my phone to play with whenever I want a few moment's peace. During dinner, in waiting rooms, on airplanes, whatever. I think you came up with a great compromise with your morning/evening commute setup.

Cat said...

Well, your phone has interactive games that c-girl can play that won't necessarily turn her into a passive zombie (she's an ACTIVE zombie instead! Way better! no?). e-baby's fine motor skills are still such that she won't enjoy any video games. So I feel like I'm adding another hour of dead-air TV time every day. I feel a little guilty about that, although I also like getting to work on time. So, guilt be damned. She can have TV in the jogger.

I can't wait until she's coordinated enough to play a video game. But she's nearly as clutzy as I am, and I still can't play video games without throwing the device at a wall.

cindy w said...

Well, I don't know what options you have for games with your phone, but with the iPhone, there are things like "Adam's Game," which shows 3 images on the screen and says "touch the [insert 1 of the 3 images shown]". When you do, it goes "YAY!!" and you hear a round of applause. That's probably something she could do, because it doesn't require her to have advanced fine motor skills (all she has to do is tap one thing), and she might actually be able to improve her fine motor skills playing something like that.

But you know, as far as the active vs. passive thing, Catie also has iPhone apps that just read Dr. Seuss books to her, so we do plenty of passive stuff too. Don't feel guilty. You're letting her be active and involved on one way of your commute. A little Caillou in the morning isn't going to hurt anybody.

Cat said...

"Caillou won't hurt anyone"

except me. when I go to prison for killing ROW-SIE!!!!

:-)