The Greatest Baby Sitter

We almost made it to 2 years before Gavin watched TV. That's not to say he hasn't seen his fair share of soccer or news but that really doesn't grab his attention. He'll look up at the screen for a minute and get bored and do something else. We've given him opportunities to watch cartoons in the past. Those rare times were when he got a big boo boo and nothing would console him. Turns out in those times undiluted juice was a big treat and he had zero interest in cartoons.

On our flight to Hawaii we tried really hard to get him interested in cartoons. He would have none of it. Not the cartoons we had playing on Ryan's laptop nor the ones the airline had in their DigE players. I was beginning to think our son was abnormal.

Then, on Friday evening, between a painful infection and a head cold he became inconsolable. Until... daddy had the great idea to break out a cartoon. He started looking for the cartoon network when I remembered Gavin received a cartoon DVD from his Uncle Ike & Aunt Jenny as a gift not to long ago. Ryan popped it into the DVD player and *wah-lah* all crying ceased. (I want to avoid the cartoon network at all costs - I don't want him to see all of those ads for toys he will one day die without).

All it took to take Gavin's mind off of his pain was a giant green bear named Boz singing about the alphabet with the help of Gracie and Drew. The only other time he sits so still is when he is on a book tear. He'll sit still for long periods of time if someone reads to him (of course, they have to be the right books otherwise he'll grab them and toss them aside or simply state his disapproval with a matter of fact, "no," before handing you a suitable book).

So far there haven't been any protests when we turn the TV off. I tell him to say bye bye to Boz, which he does. Then Boz is gone. If only his songs were gone; they have an annoying sticking power.

Saturday morning I saw him, Gavin, not Boz, sitting on the couch with the remote control pointed at the tv. He would push a button then look up to see if it worked. Eventually he turned the tv on but the poor guy would have to change the setting then get a different remote out. I'm so not teaching him how to do that. Heck, Ryan just taught me how to do it this weekend. Rather, he gave me a refresher course on how to do it.

Here is a picture of Gavin watching the cartoon for the first time. I like to say he is glassy eyed and slack jawed out of awe for the cartoon but I think having a head cold, not being able to breath from his mouth and having to look up to see the tv on the wall naturally lent itself to this look.