lazy days

   I admit it, there are days where nothing but Netflix marathons are accomplished in my house. Some mixture of Dora, Diego and a few other shows like Pingu (a Swedish cartoon with no talking about some penguins that live in igloos), Power Rangers, this stupid crayon show, Curious George, occasionally Godzilla or Bananas in Pyjamas, Martha Speaks, some Woody Woodpecker and Oscar's Oasis (another cartoon without talking but its about a lizard in the dessert and JT thinks it is HILARIOUS).
   Of course if Ellie had her say so we would never do anything but watch Dora and Diego,, fortunately for my sanity JT overrides and he is the one who knows how to work the xbox controller so he generally wins. While television may be rotting their brains at some points they have also learned a variety of useful and entertaining information from a few of the shows. They love to watch Team Umi Zoomi which is not on Netflix, as well as a few other educational shows.
   In the past week I have encountered a wide variety of their knowledge in action. For instance:

   Ellie told me that she needed to get out of the car because a Puma was going to get her. Mainly she just wanted out of her carseat, as she has a severe aversion to it after spending a whole weekend driving here and there . Later in the same day she looked me in the face and said "Mommy, you carry me? I can't step on the bal-canos (Volcanoes)." JT then chimes in and says.. "yeah, cause they go HUH-BOOOM"
   A few days later Ellie told Ian in the morning to close our bedroom door because the dinosaurs were coming. I mean honestly child, can you at least chose realistic animals???
   JT demonstrates his knowledge in a slightly different manner. . Generally by riding around on his dino head on a stick with his cowboy hat on screaming to the top of his lungs "I a cowboy, YEEHAW, Giddie up horsie" or "mommy I a superhero, I has powers." followed by pressing some imaginary picture on his shirt and running through the house or jumping around kicking. Today however he taught me something new..
   Ellie, the lovely child she is, dumped half a bag of Goldfish on my floor. . thankfully I had just used my new Dyson and I was not willing to waste a pound of yummy Goldfish. As I am yelling at Ellie to clean them up JT backs up to the doorway and runs full force and jumps into the pile on the floor screaming "CANNON BALL!!!"
   Now how do you expect me to keep a straight face after that?? Naturally my neighbor Andrea, who is a self proclaimed Goldfish addict, and has no children yet, has a little bit less self control and is literally bent over in the doorway laughing so hard that I can't even hear her. So JT sees this as an invitation to repeat. I need to vacuum again.

   Ellie has also learned a bit of Spanish, extended her vocabulary and I heard her count to 10 yesterday. JT has learned some more words, lots of animals and shapes, and somewhere he picked up how to work the laptop. Together they have learned a few songs, like this one.. Which Ellie sings in the car non stop.
   They really are great kids, and if my Daddy taught me anything in life it was that you have children for 2 reasons: Slave Labor, and your own personal amusement. Trust me my children are both.