Stine Kuskner

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1 YEAR & 3 MONTHS - 3 Oct 2011

What have I done - Liva & Laia are addicted to Barney! They can even almost say his name! To those of you who don't know Barney, he's a huge purple dinosaur with a lot of different kinds of friends, and they do loads of singing and dancing. We have the DVD called "Barney's animal ABCs", Liva and Laia love it. We have 3 other Barney DVDs, they aren't good enough.

We have loads of other DVDs for kids, none of them are accepted; it has to be Barney and the ABCs. I don't put it on much, not even every day, but they'll ask for it many times in a day - by "ask for it" I mean point to the TV, go to where the DVD player is, or grab the actual DVD while pointing wildly and making sounds that sound almost like "Barney".

I often put him on when we get home from our afternoon walk, when the girls are tired and I have to prepare dinner. They sit down in their little chairs and relax or clap and dance along, depending on how they're feeling.

Barney is good entertainment, it keeps Liva and Laia hearing English, and it's educational enough that I don't feel guilty letting them watch it for a while. Actually, I recommend it to any parents with kids from about 12 months and up!

1 YEAR & 3 MONTHS - 4 Oct 2011

On our way home from the mall this afternoon I let Liva and Laia walk on their own for a while. There's a pedestrian area, and I don't need to worry about them running out on the street. When they get to walk on their own, Laia is always really good. She comes when I call, if she goes to pick up stuff from the ground and I say "no" she leaves it, and she tends to stay more or less close to me. Liva, on the other hand, doesn't listen at all! She goes her own way, doesn't come when I call, if I go to get her she'll run off, laughing. She listens to "stop", which is great, otherwise I don't think I would've dared to let her walk on her own.

Well, this afternoon she was doing her own stuff, and I eventually had enough. I went to get her, she ran off, and when I caught her I yelled at her and carried her over to the stroller. She started crying. I continued walking, Laia came with me, Liva stayed in the middle of the pedestrian area crying. I continued walking. Laia hesistated; mom or sister? Liva continued crying. I continued walking. Laia ran back to Liva, grabbed her by the hand and pulled her in my direction. Liva started laughing, both girls started running/walking quickly, all troubles were forgotten, they were both laughing happily and wandering off together.