My Baby Einstein conversion

Sam loves Baby Einstein. I always thought that REAL kids don't really like those videos, and they were just a bit of a marketing gimmick (is it obvious that I can be a real skeptic?!). Boy, was I wrong. Apparently puppets, cheesy videos of other toddlers, classical music, and footage of animals and the outdoors is VERY alluring to a one year old. What do you think?

This came in VERY handy when we had an 8 hour drive (which took 11 hours) to BC. Sam would cry, we'd fire up the Baby Einstein on the laptop. Problem solved.

I've also discovered BE's usefulness in these other areas:

• Cutting Sam's fingernails
• Trimming Sam's hair
• Taking a shower without having a ticked-off Sam hanging out in the bathroom with me
• That last 15 minutes before Kris comes home, when the kitchen is a disaster, supper is almost done, Sam is hungry and therefore a bit needy, and I am about to turn into a complete madwoman

I'm sure I will discover even more as time goes on.

Baby Einstein saves us all a big headache, and the aforementioned situations go from total gong shows to completely reasonable, even enjoyable experiences for all of us. So I'm just going to embrace it. And be thankful for it.

And not only that, I think Sam is actually learning a bit from it. Every time they talk about cows, he moos, which he knew how to do before, but only when prompted by, "Sam, what sound does a cow make?!" Now he makes the connection between the photo of a cow, and that a cow says "moo". And this morning, while trimming his hair, he cock-a-doodle-dooed for the first time. Thanks, Baby Einstein. Haha... And everything in moderation, right? As long as he is not watching it all day, and just a bit here and there, I think it's just fine. It's funny, because I automatically feel like this is a bit of a "bad mom" confession. And then I realized, that I think the only person who makes me feel that way is... well... myself. Baby Einstein teaches Sam to make animal sounds, and teaches ME to lower my expectations for myself.

So I'll be honest - I love these freakin' videos. I have officially been converted.