When I find myself in times of trouble

We try to be very thoughtful about what media we expose Mary to. Charlie watched a lot of television as a toddler/preschooler. Way too much, in fact. By the time Sam was born, I had read Jim Trelease's Read-Aloud Handbook. This was just the impetus I needed to rid our lives of the idiot box. So for a couple of years, we were TV-Free. Then when the White Sox were in the world series playoffs, we quickly ordered cable to restore reception to our house. As you know, they made it - and we got to watch! After that we fell into a routine of TV (mostly sports) from October through March, and no TV from April through September. Even when we have some sort of reception, the viewing is very limited. Our plan was to not expose Mary to any sort of screen until she was well over 2 years old. Ah, what 8 days in the hospital will do for one's strongly held convictions.

There were a lot of hours during Mary's recovery that needed to be filled. And while we spent time reading, and playing, and listening to music - we also watched an old favorite from Charlie's early years, Baby Songs, at least 17 times!

In the weeks leading up to her surgery, we made a video of the boys - reading to her, and playing in the yard and talking to the camera - which Mary also enjoyed while hanging out in the PICU. And when Daddy would visit, they would sometimes catch part of a ball game.

Lastly, there were two YouTube videos that came in handy during some really fussy periods. The first was The Beatle's Let it Be. Mary was mesmerized by this one. It had to be this specific version, with shaggy Paul staring into the camera looking stoned. At one point, during a particularly long teething related crying jag, I had the laptop propped on her bed and I just kept hitting replay. The other was this song by They Might Be Giants. We watched this one more towards the end of the week, when Mary and I would sit on the big bed together - it made us happy :)