TV time

It's with a heavy heart that I confess that I now allow Kalina to watch TV.

Yesterday, in fact, I allowed her to watch a whole lot of it since she was spending the morning throwing up and running a fever.

The tube is no longer reserved for hotels and other peoples' houses--we've revealed to Kalina, and on purpose no less, that our TV is actually good for more than the static she sees if she pushes the "on" button. She seems to have forgiven us for keeping her in the dark for so long.

Of course, this new development coincided perfectly with the advent of little Elise. Actually, it coincided with the date when, two weeks after Elise had arrived (one week to realize that I need TV, and one week to receive the much-anticipated Blues Clues DVD in the mail from Amazon.com), we all sat down in the evening with a bowl of popcorn and inaugurated our television as a family.

We chose Blue Clues, by the way, at the advice of Matt's cousin, who'd thankfully done all the research on children's programming and touted it as one of the best. I was grateful for the help--it makes me feel slightly better about the whole thing, like when I allow Kalina a lovingly baked oatmeal cookie instead of a Twinkie.

"Kalina would like to watch the dog!" Kalina had announced that day (she'd seen the DVD box) and, exhausted, we figured it'd be just the thing to carry us through the pre-bedtime half hour. Elise got to tag along, but slept through the whole thing in my arms, much to my relief.

Too excited to even eat the popcorn (she'd hold a kernel in her hand for a good 10 minutes before munching on it and then, realizing she's not a huge fan of popcorn, would grab another to hold and feed it to Mommy or Daddy 10 minutes later), Kalina clammed up the second the show began. Silent and still, our girl was utterly entranced by the screen. Was our worst nightmare coming true? Was Kalina officially a TV addict? A pint-sized couch potato?

Or, even worse, was she going to burst into tears and render my attempt at getting 25 minutes each day to care exclusively for her sister and/or the dishes obsolete? Matt and I knew it could go either way and exchanged glances back and forth over her head.

And then, a good 10 minutes into the show, Kalina surprised us all when after Joe (the host) asked if anyone could see a triangle, she pointed swiftly, confidently and triumphantly in the direction of the screen (and, we assume, specifically at the green triangle in the picture). She was hooked, and we breathed an ironic sigh of relief.

We've watched the same episode now about 9 times. She's watched about half of another one, enough to know that the first one was her favorite.

And we ask for it again many times a day.

Just for fun, here's my top 10 list of why I still don't like my little girl (either of them) watching TV:

10. I'm morally opposed to TV before school age. Not really, but it's hard to suddenly allow something that has been forbidden for so long. It's a letting-go process and yes, I am laughing at myself about it.
9. The creepiness factor of watching adults make utter fools out of themselves to entertain children. And yet, I love them for it. After all, haven't we all been there at one time or another?
8. Lack of intriguing plot or character depth.
7. When Elise is in her swing and Kalina is watching TV, I feel like a really, really, really bad mom.
6. I'm not looking forward to years of character-themed birthday parties and Halloween costumes.
5. My little girl is growing up! Even the AAP says she's old enough to watch. So sad. :(
4. "Kalina would like to watch the dog." Repeat.
3. TV is frying my child's brain. I can't help but believe this.
2. Poor Elise has only had about two weeks of life sans TV. She'll be deprived of all the quality time and attention her sister received. *sob*
1. I've had all the songs from Blues Clues stuck in my head at once for days now, playing repeatedly all at the same time. Sometimes the cacophony keeps me up at night.

Photo: Kalina and I made a paper chain! See, we do still spend quality time together!