Spongebob Squarepants and other noise.

Our Dr. says that TV will make my kids stupid. I agree to some extent. Lately, Ashlyn will say that Spongebob is her favorite cartoon. In fact, this morning she said "Spongebob is a really good guy. I love him!" I'm glad he is only a character cause I'd hate to have him for a son-in-law. I usually don't even let her watch him because he annoys me. Cartoons like that could definitely make her stupid.

This morning, to get a moment's peace while the babies were napping, I let her watch her beloved just because it was so cute what she said. I thought how bad could it be to watch it for a little while? She had been parked on my lap talking a mile a minute and asking a million questions while I was trying to check my email. Question, could listening to toddler babble and nonsense for 24 hours a day make me stupid? I guess I should take an aptitude test and see if it's done any permanent damage.

So I turned on the TV for her and went back to what I was doing. Most days the TV doesn't even get turned on until Lance gets home and checks the news and weather. I have been lax on this issue in the past, when the babies were smaller it was so much easier to let her sit and stare at Dora and Sprout TV than to let her "help" me with the babies. Now that they are bigger and could actually be playmates for her (if she lets them) I try and keep TV to a minimum. They all love Baby Einstein though and I will pop that in now and then if I really need a distraction.

Anyway, I started feeling guilty because I could almost feel Ashlyn's brain being sucked out of her skull watching the "big yellow sponge" dancing around, acting like his usual annoying self. Plus I also realize that the reason she sits on my lap and chatters on endlessly is because she misses me and wants my attention. That and the fact that she has the Schwenn gene, or should I say curse, that causes her to blabber on without thought or purpose. I myself have that if you haven't noticed.

So I came up with an idea to make homemade finger paint. I found a site that had some simple directions. You can find it here if interested. I like that it's made out of soap so that I can use it to scrub my table at the same time. It says its easy to wash out and I hope that's true because she is creating an ocean on the table, and her shirt, behind me right now.

I'm not neglecting her, if your wondering. I am turning around and commenting on her artwork every couple of seconds. She is being very quiet verbally so she must be deep in concentration. OK, the ocean is spreading so I think we better rap this up.

After washing, the blue did stain her hands a tiny bit but not bad (the photo above is from before we washed). I'll let you know what her shirt looks like after washing it.

Of course, while carrying the containers to the sink to clean up, one drip landed on the floor. Blue too, mind you. We have grayish carpet in our kitchen (not by choice, it was here when we moved in and why replace it until the kids are older?) and I used a washcloth and gave it a little scrub and it came right out.

So I think it's a hit. She had a blast. Bye Bye Spongebob.

TV can't be all bad though. Ashlyn has learned some of her cutest phrases from TV. Once after I finished wiping her butt on the toilet, she said "thank you Your Highness". I felt just like royalty.

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Edited to add: The shirt did not come out stain free. But of course I did not pretreat it nor did I wash it immediately. Luckily I used a shirt that she will keep using for art projects (recognize it Brian and Dolora? I hope you don't mind since you sold the company anyway. Ashlyn thought it was a big fly on her shirt). Also you can't tell from the photos but I have a clear plastic table cloth on my table so it won't get stained either. I think next time I'm just going to let her play with the paint in a cookie sheet or something. She didn't really draw much with it. Mostly she just liked to glop it on and make a mess. She played with it for a long time though so we'll do it again.