TV Free Days!

Would you believe that Beth and I haven't watched *any* TV in the last 2 days? Honestly, that is such huge achievement in our household. It is all too easy and somewhat of a habit to just switch on the TV and let Beth watch Playschool (her favourite show at the moment... at least it's educational!) for an hour in the morning, whilst I am getting my thoughts together for the day and then again for a couple of hours in the afternoon.. especially at the end of the day when I'm trying to cook dinner and don't want her underfoot.

Yesterday's TV free day started with us getting ready for church in the morning. I knew that if I switched on the TV, we would have a mini-meltdown when it needed to be turned off. Beth isn't a huge fan of church at the best of times, so I didn't want to exacebate the situation unnecessarily. As it turned out, Beth had a great time at church and even started singing (rather loudly and out of tune... it was really funny and quite embarrassing for Phan and me!) the hymns and the mass parts. After church, we went to Chermside to do some things and Beth got to have a Boost juice and her favourite sushi for lunch. We went home, Beth had a nap... and in the afternoon Phan had the fun task of mowing our overgrown lawn ... it was very obviously overgrown as Beth all weekend had been telling Daddy - "Long... Grass.... Long... Grass" over and over again... :)

We had some leftover chicken casserole (which I had frozen previously) for dinner, which resulted in me not needing to do much to prepare dinner, other than cook some rice... so we did some art and craft (another favourite activity of hers at the moment) as the rice cooked and the casserole reheated... Beth had her dinner, followed by bath-time (another reason for wanting to ditch the afternoon TV watching... she has been chucking tanties and not wanting to have a bath in the evening... but without the TV, she's more than happy to go and have a bath... even singing "Bathtime... Bathtime..." as she goes her merry way... :) After her bath, she sat at the table as Phan and I ate dinner and we all chatted and talked together... Beth was pretending to stir something in a bowl and we had our first interactive conversation that went like this -

Me - "What are you doing Elizabeth?"
Beth - "Stirring"
Me - "That's good stirring... what are you stirring?"
Beth (a moment to think and then...) - "Soup"
Me (surprised at the logical response) - "Wow soup?! What kind of soup are you stirring?"
Beth (a little pause... then) - "Cheeeese!" (followed by a cheeky grin and giggle)
At which point Phan and I just cracked up laughing with her. The hilarious thing was, it wasn't some random words she was saying, because we repeated this conversation/questions several times and each time she would say she was stirring "Soup".. and that it was "Cheese" soup... so funny!

So now I'm thinking I've got to find a recipe for this cheese soup that Beth is making. :)

After her soup making antics, we progressed into playing shopkeeper (I set up some empty nappy boxes to make shelves in a store with the some play food (and felt food) and then we used her toy shopping trolley or basket to go shopping and then we went to the cash register which was tended to by Daddy... :) I need to go and get some toy money (or make some) though to enhance the experience...

After playing shopkeeper, we had bedtime stories (we've only recently started this up again, because we went through a phase where Beth was so tired and ratty that she didn't want to listen to any stories!) before going to bed.

Today, Beth and Daddy slept in until 7:45am! (She had stirred at 6am, but Phan went in and they both went back to sleep). I needed to sort out getting some passport photos for Elizabeth printed, which turned out to be a lot more difficult than it should have been! I had taken the photos myself (following the guidelines on the Australian passport website... and I might mention I took about 50 photos and managed to get 2 photos that fit the criteria!) but I went to 4 different places and no one could print it for me! Very frustrating. We ended up going to KindyROO and then having to drop into Chermside afterwards to get them printed (with no hassle at all!)

Beth fell asleep in the car on the way home (with sushi in her mouth!). She had a short nap and then woke up in time to have Sharon, Isaac & Em come and visit... We haven't seen them in weeks, so it was great to catch up with them... and Elizabeth loved following Em around! This afternoon, I made pasta and occupied Beth with some diced up carrots instead of turning on the TV. It definitely entertained her... but it also resulted in her scattering carrots all over the kitchen floor!

Dinner was followed by the same routine as Sunday night, except instead of playing shopkeeper, we played with blocks... and Phan and I were having skyscraper building competitions to see who could build the tallest skyscraper... :) and then Beth played dress ups (kind of... really she just rummaged through a pile of clothes without wanting to put any of it on!)

And that brings us to the end of our TV free 48 hours... I will probably let Beth watch some TV tomorrow... I don't think I want to deal with her "helping" me with dinner again!

A little extra update - Beth is talking a whole lot more too and beginning to string more words together... today's word at KindyROO was shark... and they were taught today at KindyROO that sharks have sharp teeth. So Beth has been walking around point to the stamp on her hand and foot and telling me "Shark! Sharp Teeth!" She's also obsessed with seahorses at the moment and keeps bring this foam shaped seahorse to me and telling me it's a "Seahorse!"... There was also a lizard on the sliding door last night which ran up and hid on the ceiling... so Beth kept telling us "Lizzie... Hiding"... and then got scared of the lizard.

Okay that's my mega update for tonight... I have photos coming, but I just don't have the energy to post them up tonight... you'll just have to stay tuned... :)