Sucker!
OK, so the title is not what you might think…Emily had her first lollipop (Dum-Dum sucker) tonight. Blue Raspberry flavor! She loved it and she did a great job of licking the whole thing rather than crunching into it. We have been laughing privately about being such different parents from the “status quo”…Emily is 3 1/2 years old and is just now having her first sucker. Didn’t watch any TV or videos until she was 2. First Disney movie (Finding Nemo) about a month ago…and even then we broke it up over several days of viewing. Yes, we are pretty weird…but we like it that way. Now we just want to make sure we keep up the same standards for Norah. I have always heard it is harder with the second one because you have the influence of the first child. For example, it was easy to not have the TV on with Emily and even now we don’t turn it on until the girls go to bed. But, if Emily does want to watch a VeggieTales video or something, we end up taking Norah to another room so she doesn’t watch.
Many people have scoffed at the notion that Emily didn’t watch any TV until she was 2. I’ve been told it is an unrealistic expectation. For us, we have always felt there are so few hours in the week already that we get to spend together since we both work full time that when we are with the kids, we want to use that time playing, reading books, coloring, being outside, etc. And for anyone who thinks it is ridiculous, I typically have to bite my tongue when I really just want to point out how intelligent, well spoken, and imaginative Emily is. Certainly she may still be this way even if she had “gotten” to watch television and videos sooner so I am making an assumption. But, our family would have missed out on lots of great conversations and playtime.
Yep, we will stick with being weird. That was quite a tangent – I originally only planned to post about the sucker!
