Who's Elmo?

By today's standards I'm guessing nearly any other kid would consider me a mean Mommy. I don't let my daughter watch TV. But, at 13 months, she hasn't asked and we've been really busy. Don't get me wrong- I love kid's TV shows more than the average adult, but I planned for a TV free year before she was born and we're going to keep it up for her little sister that's on the way.

Avoiding the tube works for us because Hannah is a spirited baby with loads of opinions. We keep a pretty tight schedule each day because she blows the whistle to ensure I stay on track. I'm pretty sure that if she got in the habit of watching a half hour of Disney Jr. in the morning, a trip to the grocery store would be out of the question until the show's over.

Being 9 1/2 months pregnant and cutting back to one nap a day has made turning on the TV very enticing. Luckily I cancelled Netflix and our cable isn't due to arrive until the baby's due date, so I haven't given in to the "Babysitter." When I do need a break, I sit down in Hannah's room while she entertains herself with her toys. Unfortunately, if I lay on the floor I become a jungle gym, so I'm really glad we asked for the splurge glider since I spend HOURS in it.

Now that Hannah is listening and learning, it's really fun to help her explore her toys in new ways. She's got a neat set of boxes with color coordinated toys inside. As she opens them, I narrate her actions and ask her questions. She is best at answering "Ba(ll)"! The other day, we sang a song about Bears, so I let her stuffed Bear raid all the boxes in search of food. She laughed and laughed as he turned his nose up at the balls and crayons and then "devoured" the foods. When she finished playing, I sang the clean up song, picked up her toys, and commended her for making an attempt to put something away. We had a great time!