Planet Baby, Part 2

On the theme of "reclaiming" my life--at a playgroup one of the mothers said her late-afternoon ritual is to put her feet up on the couch and read a book between 5:30 and 6:00 while her son plays at her side; at that time her boy was around fourteen months old. My son is now fourteen months, and I have not been able to incorporate this pleasant ritual into our daily routine. Not from lack of trying; at around 5:30, I'd like nothing better than to kick my feet up and take a break from running after my little man on the go. Today I put in a DVD and told myself I was watching one of my half-hour art lectures (I bought a series of lectures on the history of European art, in case someone missed the earlier post) no matter what. The little one didn't protest; he simply pushed buttons over and over again on the DVD player, fascinated by the fact that he could push buttons and make different things happen. In theory, I could find a way to watch that video even when my toddler's in the room (buy a different shelving unit for the TV and the DVD player, for instance); in practice, I'll probably give up the idea of watching TV between 5:30 and 6:00 and try a book instead. Tomorrow I'm aiming for 2 or 3 pages, at best.