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.

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Confession

After Tina's very convincing post about registering to vote (not to mention the GINORMOUS bus Erik threw me under this morning), I figured I better come clean. I, Leonora Schaelling, am not currently registered to vote. GASP!

In all fairness, I did request to be registered when I had my license updated, but apparently, it didn't happen. And I've filled out the form...but don't ask me what I did with it. It certainly wasn't put in the mail. So as you can see, my road to hell is very well paved. I'll leave the handbasket for Erik.

Now, Erik is following things very closely and has been since this marathon election season began. He even voted in the Primaries. I, on the other hand, feel that - as most moderates/independents in Utah must - my vote isn't worth all that much. We all know where Utah's vote will go. I know, I know...if everyone who felt that way voted, maybe the outcome would be different...then again, maybe not. (As a side note, while we both voted in the last election, I would like to point out that I voted in the 2000 election and Erik didn't - so at least I have that to throw in his face.)

I hereby pledge that I will register to vote. I will start paying closer attention to the issues and listen to debaters who always seem to side-step the actual question in order to push part of their platform. I will cling to the promises I like best and hope against hope that some of them come to fruition. I will ignore the fact that I have very little faith in politicians in general and put my faith in the system as a whole (because it really is better than some alternatives out there). But most importantly, I will proudly wear my "I Voted" sticker on November 4. Now please stop nagging!

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Frog Update

No, the frogs aren't dead. And shame on any of you who assumed that's what my update would be. ;-) No...this post is about Erik.

For someone so reluctant to get two tiny little frogs, Erik is suddenly very gung ho on the whole fish ownership thing. We've had fish before - in fact, we had quite a large tank with some beautiful cichlids - but we always end up forgetting to change the filter cartridge, deciding we don't have the time or the desire to clean the tank as often as needed, etc. and choose to go back to being fishless. But after seeing how much Lillian loves to watch these silly frogs, he went out last night and bought a 5-gallon tank for them and will be adding some low-maintenance gold fish in the next couple days.

Now, I was perfectly happy with my little frogs that require a water change every two weeks, no filter/thermometer/light needed...basically, think about them once in a while and they're fine. But now we have a cute little tank with rocks that will need to be "vacuumed," filters that will need to be changed, and water that is quite a bit harder to replace (think 5 gallons vs. the maybe 1/2 gallon the frogs are in now). And who do you suppose will be doing all this work? Ummm, yeah...not Erik.

I guess I can't complain too much, though, since I entered into this willingly and even picked out the rock/plant combination to put in the tank so the poor things have somewhere to play if they get a hankering. But we're definitely going with the cheap gold fish so I don't feel as bad when my $15 fish has to be flushed.

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