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.

Toys! Toys! Toys!

When I was pregnant I was pretty adamant that my house would not become a giant nursery. Baby M's room would of course, have baby stuff, but I saw no reason for my living room to turn into Romper Room. And up until a few weeks ago we had kept the number of toys, especially those of the giant plastic variety, to a minimum. We really only had 1 offender-- the Fisher Price Kickin Bobbin Gym, a monstrosity I had fully intend to return, but lost the gift receipt and ended up putting it together in a desperate attempt to get out of singing yet another chorus of "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes." And, I have to admit, Baby M does seem to enjoy kicking at it.

But a few weeks ago I broke down and bought the giant plastic toy of all giant plastic toys, the Exersaucer. Technically, I bought the Graco Baby Einstein Discover and Play Activity Center, but it's the same idea; a seat for the baby surrounded by different toys. I took Baby M to Babies R Us and had him try out all of the exersaucers, jumperoos, etc and this is the one he liked best. He is especially fond of the push buttons that say the name of animals in English and Spanish. He pushes them with his head instead of his hands, but I'm sure he is just trying to absorb more vocabulary via osmosis. So now I have this giant plaything sitting next to my dining room table, but it is worth it. For the first time in 4 months I can eat dinner without a baby in my lap.

We have also accumulated a variety of rattles, boards books and stuffed animals but Baby M's favorite thing to play with is a gallon sized ziploc bag full of bagel chips. Of course he only gets to hold this bag under careful supervision but it is still the highlight of his day. Now I finally understand why toy companies always label those plastic bags that hold toy parts with the message "Not a Toy. Keep out of reach of children.", it's for parent's like me!