Interesting....

While I never parked Rachel in front of a Baby Einstein video and called it education, there is a certain tendency to buy into the whole "cognitive developmental toys, books, videos" trend that bombards first-time parents when they walk into places like BabiesRUs. And I do have Rachel watch 1-2 Baby Einstein movies. She fell in love w/ her Baby Bach and was riveted by it. I thought it was cute when I let her watch it, and it helped stretch her through some cranky moments before naptime or bedtime, etc.

Ben has been noting more and more that we want to make sure that she doesn't take in too much TV, and I agree. I generally don't have the TV on, and when the two of us watch it, it's usually after she goes to bed. So, he sent me this article today about baby videos (which is a pretty interesting read) and how they can actually DELAY language development in toddlers. I do agree that the number of baby videos on the market is quite extreme....one of the articles said that there were only like 140 baby videos sold on Amazon a few years ago and now there's about 750 sold.....major spike! And remembering how overwhelmed I was when I found out how many baby books there are out there about sleeping, eating, development, and anything else you can think of, I'm sure these types of books have spiked as well.

Obviously, there's a middle ground here.....watching videos doesn't cause permanent damage to our children and skipping videos doesn't mean that our kids will be all natural and healthy, smart and well-adapted, etc, etc. So much information is out there on w/ people's opinions on how to turn out these healthy, perfect kids and how not to mess them up that it can literally drive you insane reading it all. Everyone is an expert apparently. Sometimes, I have to wonder how we all survived. My mom fed me right from the baby food jar....reinserting the spoon into the jar and saving my germs for a future meal, I probably had one of those crazy dangerous walkers (that books like Baby Bargains made me feel that putting Rachel in one of those would be like riding in the car w/out a car seat which many did before there were car seats), and many other things that turned out perfectly fine. I still take Rachel's food out of the jar/container and serve it separately half the time, but when we're traveling or the dishwasher is running or I don't feel like getting a bowl, I serve her right out of the jar ever since my mom looked at me funny a few months ago and said "we gave you your food right out of the jar....." Hmmmm. Good point, Mom. I will now relax:)

Ok. Now for what you've really been waiting for....Rachel pics. You put up w/ my time on my soap box (again), and for that you shall be rewarded. I have to change the setting on my new camera.....Rachel was scrunching up her face to the red eye reducer....aka bright orange light. Future pictures should depict a little less "'attitude" in her:)

Here's Rachel chillin' in her swing....I'm trying to get the last bit of use out of the swing before she either refuses to sit on it b/c being mobile is more fun or b/c she weighs too much to be in it (she's at 22 lb....only 3 more to get to the 25 lb limit). BTW - if you look at one of the pics in the background, you can see Ben proposing to me. We have pictures of this b/c he did it in front of an auditorium of people....he obviously knew what my answer would be:)

I gotta give her credit here....she's trying to smile despite the annoying bright light:) Cracks me up.....and I love the leg hanging over the side:)