Sesame Street

I'm afraid my baby is addicted to Sesame Street. I was all for keeping to the "no TV under 2" recommendation and except for the period when I tried anything and everything to calm his colic, I rarely parked Baby M in front of the television.

Then I caught cold after cold this winter and I started turning on the occasional episode while I recuperated on the couch. I also found that 10 minutes of Sesame Street would sometimes stop the inconsolable crying jags that Baby M often experiences upon waking from a nap. And I admit that both my husband and I have pulled up sesamestreet.org while we surreptitiously check our email in a separate browser. Although Baby M was happy enough to watch, he never seemed obsessed with watching, until now.

Now he wakes at 5:30 am and begins gesturing wildly at the TV set. He rummages through our DVD collection until he finds the Sesame Street Fiesta DVD and then waves it in front of my face. If I hide the Fiesta DVD he pulls out the unopened Baby Einstein videos I received as shower gifts and if I hide those, he brings me Austin Powers in desperation. So I have acquiesced and now allow him thirty minutes of Sesame Street a day. It makes him really happy and I can use those thirty minutes to catch up on email or wash the dishes. But a lot of the time I just sit next to him and watch. We love it when Elmo "asks a baby" --it cracks us up every time.