So let’s file this one under the “I will never…” category in my own rules and standards parenting manual (that, as you have probably figured out by now, has had about 600 pages ripped out).

With the remodel done, and the looming task of rebuilding our physical space to some sort of normalcy, we are yet again reminded of what they refer to in scientific journals (or at least should) as the ‘toddler effect’. It goes something like this: take the project’s overall hours in heretofore “normal” hours, multiply that by about 37, multiply that by 2, divide that by the cosine of the root of 76, then add 6. It is precisely this multiplier effect that calls for desperate measures…pulling out the big guns…calling in the cavalry, yes folks I parked her cute little butt in front of the TV. Out came the entire 12-volume DVD set of Baby Einstein, and the 2 High5 DVDs and her comfy ladybug chair and away we went.

Guilt demands that I find an upside; that I somehow make this an okay thing; that I rationalize it until I have actually turned it around to a *good* thing. No matter how hard I have tried, I just can’t reconcile the fact that a video is *good* because they teach the merits of exercise….while you are sitting on your butt watching it. There is also the trance-like affect that these videos have on her. No other television evokes the same intensity of engagement. It is like those perky faces on the other end are somehow beaming laser beams into her brain willing her to watch without blinking — the same way they are burning their inane songs into my subconscience. I wake up singing them, for God’s sake!

All of this evilness aside, Steve and I actually had an opportunity to work…side by side….for, like an hour at a time! If it wasn’t for that &$^% plumbing nightmare that surfaced Sunday morning, we actually would have really been able to get through one entire project. Instead, we are now halfway into about 3 — which, in our world is pretty damn awesome!