No TV - no problem

Well we have been without any TV since 21 September, and so far it's been absolutely fine. Once or twice I have got up from putting J to bed and thought that I would have flopped on the sofa if I'd had a telly - but it's not that I really want to do it. I have started listening to Radio 4 in the evening which I haven't done since J was born - I feared it would wake him up as the kitchen is near his room, but have found that it doesn't now (it might have done when he was younger as he was a poor sleeper) - and I am really enjoying the variety and the new ideas. I am missing reading at the mo (I'm too knackered come bedtime) but Radio 4 in the evening is helping with that.

We've now got several DVDs for J including Peppa, Thomas, Maisy, Fireman Sam and In The Night Garden. J's favourites are the first three mentioned above. I really regret buying In the Night Garden - soooo boring.... whereas I really look forward to the next Thomas episode (we have 3 DVDs and each has 26 episodes!). We have 2 episodes of a DVD each evening - 10 minutes - and I sit with J on the sofa and point things out or talk about it after (as much as you can with a 17 month old!) which means it's more of a shared activity. I still don't think it's "necessary" but J is very active much of the time and I think he quite enjoys the sitting down together.

The DVDs have actually formed a useful part of the evening routine - after losing bathtime (due to scoliosis) and breastfeeding (about the same time as stopping bathtime) we seemed to have nothing specific to do between wash and bed and it felt a bit unstructured and could stretch out for ages. Now we read books (lots - sometimes 5 in the evening!) and might play a little bit and then finally J has a beaker of milk watching the 2 episodes of a DVD.

I've just borrowed a DVD for me (The Time Traveller's Wife) and am looking forward to watching that some time. Instead of watching rubbish on the TV (I'd fallen into bad habits out of tiredness) I will try and make conscious decisions about what I choose as DVDs. Or at least that's my good intention!