Video Watching

Owen's normal routine allows him to watch one video in the morning starting when Asher goes down for his morning nap and I go for a shower, until I'm done.  Well, I'm no saint.  Now and then, the appeal of coming downstairs freshly showered, with energy to get some things done and finding the elder child plugged into media and therefore rendered need-less, whine-less, and underfoot-less...well, I succumb to the temptation to leave him there too long while I do dishes, make phone calls, etc.  I try not to do it too often.  Today I was not so strong.  I think I left him watching for a solid hour and a quarter before I went in and found him watery-eyed, irritable, and totally glued.  Sometimes I'll ask him, "Is your brain turning into jello yet?" just to give him a heads-up that the session is about to end, and to send the message that too much TV probably isn't a great idea.  Today when I finally retrieved him from TV-land, it was clear what had happened and I pronounced the judgment, "Well Owen, this time your brain has definitely turned to jello!  Enough TV, we need to go do something."  He didn't put up a fight, but came over and hung on my leg in the kitchen and turned some sad eyes up to me and said, "Mommy? [pause] Are people going to try to eat my brain now?"  Ha!  "No Owen, I'm sorry, I didn't mean that your brain turned into real jello.  I just meant that watching too much TV makes you feel like you have a wiggly jiggly brain that doesn't work very well.  As soon as we go get started doing something other than watching TV your brain will get back to normal again right away!"  Much relieved, Owen helped me make some yummy hamburger bun dough in the bread machine :)