Quite some time ago, Reagan received a gift - a Praise Baby DVD. Now, for those of you who do not own (or have a great deal of contact with) any very small children, Praise Baby DVDs are basically Baby Einstein videos on Jesus (way better than crack, agreed?). Its just a series of little kids doing funny things, bright colors, animals, puppets all set to Christian music. I did not actually see a Praise Baby DVD before I wrote it on Reagan’s birthday/Christmas list. Had I known they were like this...I would have BEGGED for more.
You see, most baby things or kid DVDs come complete with the most obnoxious music you have ever heard. Like someone found the most insidious repetitious rinky-dink music known to man and figured babies would like it. And this is quite possibly true. Perhaps babies do like it. But I, being the momma in this equation, do not like the rinky-dink doodoodooleedoo music blaring from the t.v. I can stand it for 30 minutes. Sure. No problem. But should my child become addicted to video with said annoying music, well, that would be a problem.
Here is the part where I praise GOD for Praise Baby! I plugged in the DVD the first day we got it and was pleasantly greeted by songs I sing in church frequently. Praise songs. Not row-row-row-your-boat stuff. Nothing rinky-dink about this DVD. Its just normal music, the kind actually on the radio station I listen to, accompanied by pictures of cute little kids.
When Reagan saw them for the first time, I will admit, she was not as impressed as I was. She watched for all of 1 minute and then ran around the room to eat the remaining gift-wrap scraps. Figures, I thought. Here I find something that doesn’t irritate me and she doesn’t want to have anything to do with it. Super. We made other attempts on occasion. Reagan would watch maybe 5 minutes of it and then run off to eat something she wasn’t supposed to. I’d give up and put it away.
About a week ago, I decided to try it again. I hadn’t had it out in several weeks and was in need of something entertaining to distract Reagan - even if just for five little minutes. I popped it in, handed her the DVD case, placed her solidly in the lazy boy, and walked away. About 20 minutes later I found her in exactly the same position, giggling with glee as the kids on the DVD splashed in a pool or went down a slide. I was stunned. Thrilled, really. This was a small miracle. Reagan does not sit for anything except fruit snacks. You can carry her around all day, walk all over the place, and she’ll be just fine. But if you sit, she has a fit. Yay, I rhyme. For Praise Baby - she will sit, absolutely still, perfectly quiet, for 30 minutes. Do you know how LONG that is!?!
And now, a week later, it seems I may have created a small monster. You see, Reagan’s fascination with Praise Baby has grown in just 7 days to somewhat of an obsession. She wants to do nothing else than sit in the recliner and watch Praise Baby. It’s the first thing she goes for in the morning. It’s the only thing she can think about all day. The minute we walk in the door and her feet hit the floor she runs to the t.v. and tries to turn on the DVD player. We decided to limit her to two times a day - once in the morning and once in the afternoon. So when we say NO, she throws her body upon the floor and screams in agony, completely inconsolable.
I suppose it could be worse. The music is pretty tolerable and I can even sing along. She’s quiet, so that’s pretty remarkable. I can get 30 minutes of whatever-I-want done. Incidentally, this is a marvelous time for me to do my personal devotions! And it really should come as no surprise to me that my daughter is addicted to praise songs. Some of my good friends that read my blog just muttered under their breath, “Yeah, we knew that was gonna happen.” And okay, so having Reagan watch t.v. is probably not going to win me any parenting awards. Fine. I’m okay with that. If she loves music about Jesus, then I just don’t care.
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