"You can do anything...that you want to do."

Cartoons aren't what they used to be, and for me that is ok since I never really liked the old ones anyway. I was never that into the roadrunner or Bugs Bunny. Recently I have started letting Jeremiah watch a few cartoons early in the morning since they seem to really capture his attention. When we watch regular adult shows, without the bright colors and songs, he may look at the t.v. a few times but he always decides he has better things to do.

When I set him in his crib in the mornings, giving me a chance to take a shower, he usually throws a fit and screams like he is being abandoned for life-with big tears and all. If, however, I put him in his crib and turn Dora the Explorer or Blues Clues on, he will stand there mesmerized for at least a half hour which is enough time for me to get ready. So while I don't want to get him hooked on t.v. at an early age, these shows are educational and fun and can make my ADD child quiet down more than anything else can. Even I like watching them.

So I decided to give a list of all the cartoons we have watched in the mornings and why they are so great.

Dora the Explorer: They sing songs and teach you Spanish. They even ask questions and then pause so that the viewers at home can answer, making it interactive.

Go Diego GO: I prefer this one to Dora, but it is very similar. Diego often teaches you about animals on his show. I learned a lot about the pygmy marmoset one day.

Handy Manny: Another one that teaches you some Spanish. This one has Manny the tool guy (who has a nice voice to listen to) and his talking tools. There are lessons learned throughout the show.

The Koala Brothers: This one is one of my favorites. It is a claymation type cartoon about some animals in the outback. The two koala brothers, Buster and Frank, go around the town finding people to help. Their motto: "We're here to help." The whole town even sings a helping song at the end of the show. Plus they all have wonderful Australian accents.

Charlie and Lola:I also really like this show. It is British and the characters are Charlie and his little sister Lola. They learn lessons like not "squabbling" and they are really kind to each other for the most part. I also love their accents.

Blues Clues: The ones with Steve are the better ones, but there are bright colors and shapes and songs. Kids learn all sorts of things from sign language to what colors can be mixed to form new ones. Recently they on the one about colors being mixed they taught us the normal colors like red and blue together make purple, but they also made lesser known colors such as chartreuse, and vermilion! Don't be surprised if you hear little children, sitting at the table coloring, say "Pass me the chartreuse crayon please."

Hope the list was enjoyed. If you'll excuse us Jeremiah and I have some t.v. watching, err I mean learning to do.

Mornings...

So here it is the morning of 5am shopping and freezing cold weather. Evan went out early this morning to get a few electronics at the sales while Jeremiah and I stayed home and "slept" (which basically means Jeremiah tossed and turned in our bed and I was kept awake by trying to keep him from rolling off). At the moment he is talking to himself in his crib where he is playing. I am writing because this morning I think I discovered one reason why God created babies.

Here it is: babies wake up and are happy to be alive and awake and are ready for the day as soon as their eyes open. which for them means being loved and playing with toys (sounds like a pretty good existence to me). This makes their parents happy and makes their day better (for a time). So each morning for a few moments at least, Jeremiah is happy with the world and his role in it thus making me happy to see him be that way. Unfortunately this happy awakeness doesn't tend to last long and the real world sets back in where he can't play with all that he wants or has to have his diaper changed.

Oh well, at least we have glimpses.

Here we go...

Since Jeremiah is being good in his crib I will take these few precious seconds to write my first post. Jeremiah is 8 1/2 months old and is beginning to get clingy with me, which is cute most of the time but inconvenient at others. Today I had played toys and occupied him all morning and it was nearing noon with no nap in sight for him and therefore no shower in the picture for me. So I set him in his playpen in the family room to take a quick, five minutes of me time, shower. He had already protested to being sat in his crib to play and I knew he would make a fuss over being alone in the family room. After my five minute shower I was finishing getting ready to the sound of him screaming at the top of his lungs as though I left him alone in the wilderness and had driven away never to return. Our lab Sydney happened to be in the room with him and didn't like the sound of him crying. Every time Jeremiah would scream, Sydney would put her face in the air and moan. It sounded like her maternal instincts were kicking in and that she was trying to get Jeremiah to calm down. All the while I was in the hallway laughing at the whole scene happening in the family room. All I could hear was scream, moan, scream, moan... It seemed like Jeremiah would calm down a little when Sydney would "talk" to him. I quickly finished what I was doing and rescued Jeremiah from the hard, cruel fate of being stuck in a safe playpen full of toys.

By the way I am finishing this blog the morning after I started it. Life with a baby.