Day Six

I scan the TIVO season pass list. No more "Passport to Europe with Samantha Brown." No more "Spongebob Squarepants." No more "Wiggles." No more "Art and Artists." No more "Tom and Jerry." No more Dora. No more Diego. No more Mickey Mouse. Alas, no more European bike racing. No more ESPN! No more "The Real World!"

Breathe. Breathe. Breathe.

Meanwhile, the kitchen table gains a new population. Block games and complex plots involving Lego pirates and a Pez Chewbacca evolve. The three-year-old completes half of a preschool workbook. The one-year-old learns how to use Legos.

We hit a wall at mid-morning. I feel like my teeth are being extracted and wonder how I can channel the energy of kids who are full of wild, curious minds unsteered--or at least far less steered--by the forces of broadcasting. I play children's music until I am about to scream, then put in an old John Denver CD. The three-year-old starts to sing along.

The three-year-old takes a circle of nylon and invents a new superhero who doesn't have a name. The one-year-old and the three-year-old start to play dolls together on the floor, and even though I know it's the one-year-old's nap time, I let them keep playing.