What have I started?

On Monday, Lillian was being very clingy. If I left her alone for even a second, she came running, wanting to be held or pushing my keyboard tray in and out (an ongoing battle since she realized it moves). As long as I was sitting in the room with her, whether actually interacting or not, she was fine. Since I had some things that needed to be done, I had to find some solution that didn't involve me sitting on the floor watching her move crayons from an empty wipe container to a hollow block and back again or diapering a stuffed frog over and over and over...

She's never been into TV. Some kids her age and even younger will sit and watch TV for hours, but until recently, she hasn't even noticed it's there. And I've been fine with that. I figure it means she can entertain herself fairly well, and people (myself included, I'm sure) watch way too much TV anyway. But in an act of desperation for 20 uninterrupted minutes to get some work done, I grabbed Lady and the Tramp, hoping that the puppies would occupy her for a little while.

Now, I've never been an advocate for having a TV babysit your kid, but I think there are times when it may be called for. And it worked better than I ever expected! She didn't watch the entire 1 hour and 16 minutes or anything, but it did entertain her for about 15 minutes. All I had to endure was 15 minutes of her screaming "Puppies!!!" at least once a minute, but that was tolerable. (The funniest part was really when they're trying to get Lady to sleep in the basket and she keeps getting out. When Lady started to whine, Lillian said, "Puppy sad." I had no idea she even knew what sad was...)

What was a lifesaver on Monday is now driving me crazy. As soon as we walk into the room with the TV, even if it's not on, she says, "Puppies" and points to the DVD player, and I can't distract her...she's a very determined young lady. She still only watches about 10-15 minutes at a time, but over the last week, I've probably seen or listened to parts of Lady and the Tramp about 4 full movies' worth. And I don't know if I can take anymore. I guess I created a puppy-loving monster.