Hellion Home

Lovely trip. Wonderful weather. Nothing exciting to report, just: eating, sleeping, sunning, swimming, repeat seven days. More photos here.

Hellion on Hiatus

Off to Florida tomorrow. Will post again on our return. Hopefully the post will be photos of us on a beach, smiling in the sunshine, rather than a mug shot following Harrison's arrest by air marshals.

Babies and TV continued...

TV and kids is a hot topic in the blogsphere this week.

Here's a take on portable DVD players.
And Suburban Bliss's response.

I'm staying out of it for now.

(If you link out to the original author's blog, you'll also find an hour's worth of music with handclaps, which is way more fun than the TV 'n' kids debate. Doug knows: I'm a sucker for handclaps.)

Image: Easter Basket

Image: Cousins

Easter Morning. Clockwise from top: Zoe, Ivy, Harrison, and Quinn

Baby Couch Potatoes

"Talk of the Nation" did a segment last week about the new Sesame Street Beginnings DVD. The lowdown is that unlike regular SS, aimed at preschoolers 3 and up, Beginnings is being marketed toward children 6 months to three years of age. As you can imagine, this has lots of people's panties in a bundle, especially since the American Association of Pediatrics recommends no TV for kids under the age of two, citing studies linking increases in TV watching to rises in ADD. In that vein a crapload of educational and child-advocacy institutions which sponsor and support SS's regular preschool programming are also pissed. Click here if you want to listen to the TotN experts arguing. This was also covered in online/print media here and here, among other places.

It does seem that SS is trying to jump on the Baby Einstein and Brainy Baby DVD bandwagon, and that their new DVDs add legitmacy to the phenonmenon of infant TV. If you're not familiar with these soul-destroyers, Julie, over at A Little Pregnant has a fantastic blog about them and their affect on her baby Charlie (over here). Even if you are familiar with them, you at least need to watch her video parody included at the bottom of the post. Without giving too much away, let's just say that one of the segments stars a tampon suspended from a wire. And it gets wet! And expands! HAHAHHA!

But I digress...as you will see from Julie's description, babies love these videos. Their bright colors and constant motion prey on babies' natural craving for changing visual stimulation. And even though it is pretty well documented that the Baby DVD products hold absolutely no educational value for babies whatsover, there simply haven't yet been studies specifically on infant TV-watching to prove that baby TV is harmful.

Oh, and did I mention that these videos made an estimated $100 million dollars in 2004? Obviously, SS sees a lucrative market there and wants a piece of the action.

SS's defense is that parents are still plopping their tykes in front of the boob tube despite the AAP recommendation, so why not at least make the programming educational? The statistic cited on NPR was that the average American kid under 2 watches 2.5 hours (holy crap!) per day, including 'ambient" TV, which is part of the AAP prohibition.

The bottom line is that parents (including Doug and I) do allow their sub-two year olds to watch TV. I've blogged about this before. We do this for a variety of reasons. We do it because Harrison asks for it ('Ernie! Ernie!). We do it because we are sometimes tired and need a break from his constant motion. We do it so that we can buy 10 or 15 minutes to get dinner made or throw in a load of laundry. We do it in order to keep him still while getting him dressed after his bath. We do it because we want to sing or dance along with a favorite song.

After rethinking this debate on TV for the young toddler set, I still think that we use TV responsibly. We're not going to get a "Kill Your Television" bumpersticker, but we're also not going to let Harrison watch DVDs when its a beautiful day outside and dinner's made and the laundry is done and we could just as easily be in the yard or the playground chasing squirrels.

DVDs for six month olds, though? I think that's way too young.

For a much better response to the ToTn debate, read this editorial here. "We try to justify video opium by only showing our daughter "classic" old Sesame Street (like somehow TV was less harmful when we were kids)." HA!

I'm dying up here!

Today is "Parents Read-Aloud Day" at Harrison's daycare, and I am signed-up in the 3 o'clock spot. I've chosen one of Harrison's favorite books, Chip Wants a Dog, by William Wegman (you know, the guy with the Weimaraners). Harrison loves this book because: 1. it has dogs in it and he's obsessed with dogs; 2. one of the dogs is brushing his teeth and Harrison likes toothbrushes and toothbrushing; 3. the text starts out "Dogs! Dogs! Dogs!" and Harrison likes to shout out "Dogs! Dogs! Dogs!" and 4. there is a picture of a stuffed dog posed upside down, which is the funniest f#^ing thing Harrison has every seen in his life. Even though he's seen it 3,398 times. He points and then says "Ha! Ha! Ha!" Sometimes the "Ha! Ha! Ha!" sounds rather forced, like he's thinking, "I've laughed at it for so long, I don't know how to stop."

Anhoo, my confession: I am nervous about reading to this horde of toddlers! Eight shrimpy, snotty, babbling one-year-olds. How stupid is that?!

But what if they are a tough crowd? What if they don't like the book? What if they don't think the upside-down dog is funny at all? What if they are not bemused by a picture of a dog-human brushing his teeth? What if they all walk away in disinterest after the second page?

I brought along Animal Sounds too, just in case.

That's a guaranteed crowd pleaser.

Image: Strong Toddlers

From our trip this weekend to Strong Museum with Emma and Ashley. Not a great photo, but the only one that I managed to get of Harrison and Emma together.

Those toddlers are fast!

Neko Case, American Idol, and babies

There is a connection!

Click the teaser quote to read the full Neko Case interview on Pitchfork:

"[I]f Celine Dion is supposedly the great singer that she says she is why is there auto tune on every fucking word in her songs? Can't you just hit it, Celine? Do you have another baby book to shoot? You gotta paint your baby to look like a pot of peas? What are you doing that you can't be singing in the studio? It's your fucking job!"

Brilliant.

Thanks, Doug, for the link.

NPR Driveway Moment

This is hellion-related only in that I had to wait for it to finish before I could get out of the car to get Harrison from daycare.

I wanted to be that guy.

Wow.

The Algernon Effect

Our wonderful friends Danika and Gordon (of the Seattle machaggis household) graced us with a lovely visit on Saturday.

Aside from being great friends, good company, and all-around upstanding folk, they are also part of our slowly dimishing group of friends that do not yet have children.

Am I the only neophyte parent that has a fresh fear of their childless friends? More specifically, does anyone else worry that parenting has rendered them dreadfully dull? Unable to talk about anything but one's child/ren? With an inability to communicate in words not found in a preschool picture dictionary?

No matter. Doug and I had a grand time and even managed showers for both of us before they arrived. (Small victories!) I think we may have even held our own in the adult conversation. (And I don't care what Wikipedia says, Gordon, it's tightie-whities NEVER whitie-tighties!)

Image: Mango Lassi

There is an ongoing, unsettled cherries vs. mangoes debate in our household, but Doug and I both agree that mangoes are up there among the best fruits in the known universe. The first time Harrison had a mango, he gobbled it up, asked for more, and Doug said in his best Godfather voice, "Ah....welcome to the family."

Two weeks ago when my Dad came over on one of his bathroom construction slave labor visits, my mom sent with him two lovely champagne mangos, which Doug, Harrison, and I promptly devoured. The next day my mom called, and Doug told her how much Harrison had enjoyed the mango. When he hung up he said, "I bet you next time she comes she's going to bring us a bunch of mangoes." Lo and behold, on my Dad's next trip less than a week later, he brought with him an entire case of champage mangoes. That's 16 mangoes.

That was one week ago today and there are only 3 left.

Add this to the list of upsides to having a kid: pimping him out for expensive tropical fruit.

Image: Honky

For the hundredth time:

Yes, he's ours.

Yes, he's 1/4 Vietnamese.

No, I don't know why he's blonde.

and

No, our mailman is 60 years old, and I do not find him remotely attractive.

Daylight Savings Time Bi-Annual Franklin Curse Update

Harrison doesn't seem to be having any trouble falling asleep in the daylight this time around and as an added bonus he's actually sleeping in past 6:30 AM, so, in the interest of energy conservation, I am considering lifting my curse* on Ben Franklin.

Just considering. I'm going to give it another year before I make a final determination.

* The technical details of my curse do not prohibit acceptance of hundred dollar bills.

Use Your Words

Doug just related this conversation he had with Harrison this morning:

Doug dresses Harrison.

H [pointing at shirt]: Oooooooh!
D: It's an orange shirt!
H [pointing in direction of kitchen/fruit basket]: Ainge? [Orange?]
D: No, orange is a color too.
H: Two? Two! Two...three!