Life Without T.V.

So last Friday, Matt and I were watching Finding Nemo, and there was a really loud crack, and then the picture went off on our wonderful 42 in. plasma t.v. We were quite distraught, none more so than Aaron, who was sure his beloved t.v. would last forever. We luckily had bought it from Costco back when they had their return anything, anytime policy. So we lugged the t.v. down to Costco, only to hear them tell us that we had to try and fix it first. So we waited all week for the t.v. repair guy to come, and when he finally did, of course he can fix it, but only after he orders a new part that could take at least another week to come. As ashamed as I am to admit this, being without t.v. was a frightening ordeal for me. To not be able to just turn on a cartoon for my kids when I needed a little break!?! Least you think me a bad mom, I really do moniter my kids t.v. watching and they get, at most, 2 hours a day, but still. . . the worst has been trying to get ready in the morning. I used to be able to turn on a curious george and Super Why, and get showered, breakfast dishes done, all kids dressed and hair done by 9:00 a.m, thus giving the illusion to my friends, that yes, I am super-mom. But alas, my only super power was the the power to turn on PBS. So this last week has been a struggle (joy?) trying to figure out creative things to do in place of t.v. I have discovered that my kids love to color, and said activity will keep them busy for at least 20 minutes, but if I would like an hour of peace, then I turn to playdough. Although the clean-up from the activity also takes an hour, my kids will usually leave me in peace for that long. The other problem with no t.v. is that when Aaron is gone to class and I finally get my kids to bed, I just sometimes want to veg a little. I have missed being able to watch t.v., but I have of course filled my time with reading. Last night was the worst, because I found myself without a book to read, and so I turned to my fall-back, Harry Potter :)

We've had some enjoyable activities in place of t.v. though. We invited some friends over to play on the slip-n-slide. It only took Matt 45 minutes to work of the nerve to WALK acrosss the slip-nslide, as you can see from the attached picture.

We also took a trip to the zoo with our friends. Most of the time our zoo experiences last about 1 hour, with Kaitlyn spending approx. 15 seconds at each animal's cage before she demands that we go see more. But this time we lasted 3 hours. It was overcast and cool, so the perfect day for the animals to be out. We got to see all of them, except the tigers, which I now suspect are stuffed and placed there to look like real ones, seeing as how I have never, in all my trips to the Portland Zoo, seen those tigers move.

And now a couple of funny stories about my funny little Matt. We were playing with his pirates the other day and he says : "Mommy, pirate go to the dungeon."

Mommy: "The dungeon? Where did you learn that word?" (as I wrack my brain trying to figure out what thing I let him watch that taught him that.)

Matt: "I learned it in nursery Mommy." Aww, the things they're teaching our kids in church these days.

Another one, although this one came from said nursery.

Bro. Luthi (Matt's teacher) "What are you building with the legos Matt?"

Matt: " A house"

Bro. Luthi: "What kind of house?"

Matt: "A macho house."

Bro. Luthi: "A Macho? House"

Matt: "Yep, a macho house." At this point Bro. Luthi was laughing too hard to continue the conversation with Matt, and per his asking, no, I have no idea where Matt learned that word either.

And last but not least our final picture will show what happens when you tell an almost 3-year-old to go get in the bath, without supervision.