A Fun Mess

A few weeks ago Emery accidentally spilled a huge box of macaroni noodles on the floor. So we swept them up and put them in a tub for her to play with. It has been the best entertainment for at least a dozen kids that have come through here and played with them for hours, but there are stray noodles over my ENTIRE HOUSE. I've swept them up so many times I've lost count.

Despite the mess, it's been really nice to have because I've significantly cut down Emery's tv time. It just started to get out of control, an episode or two while I showered and got ready, one a few hours later because she didn't nap, one while I fixed dinner. The episodes were only 20 minutes, but it added up and she was getting super cranky and asking to watch tv all the time. One night I was browsing pinterest and this quote said: "Happy kids sit down in front of the tv, cranky kids get up and walk away." I have no idea who said it, I think she has a blog or something about why she doesn't let her kids watch tv, but that really resonated with me. I saw more clearly how much tv Emery was getting, and I knew it was because I wanted an easy entertainment for her. It was a cop-out for me. So I stopped letting her watch tv. Now she plays with the noodles while I shower and get ready, and we go for a walk or read more books than we used to. It's been nice and I've noticed improvement in her behavior. Not a lot, but some. We still watch tv or movies sometimes, especially if Gavin's gone at night, but now it's rare instead of every day. I'm not saying everyone should do this, I don't care if your kids watch tv, I just know that at this phase of OUR life, we needed to cut back. At least we still have the noodles...