Unintended consequences

You may have read the recent post about babies watching television. Soon afterwards, we got Devin a Sesame Street DVD of ABC's, but he definitely prefers the Baby Einstein video. I think the latter video appeals to him because it's made up of short vignettes of things that make absolutely no sense. Like worms popping out of apples, followed by colorful turning gears, and then computer generated bouncing worms. But hey, it works, it keeps Devin's attention focused on something other than screaming, wriggling, or crawling head first into Lucy's butt.

One side effect of his new television activity, however, took me by surprise. Last week when I was catching my breath and sitting down for the first time all day, Devin was seated on the other couch, mesmerized by the strange kaleidoscope on the TV screen. Some music came on, and he instantly stood up on the couch, then turned around, and slid -- quite deftly, I might add -- down the side of the couch, feet first, on his belly, and landed on the floor like a cat. Then, with both arms held out straight in front of him like Frankenstein, he put one leg in front of the other and walked stiffly across the living room to the TV set where he began clawing at the screen. This was a week ago, and since then, he's been walking with impressive balance and coordination. Who would've thought that TV would be the catalyst that set him off on walking, when we solely intended for it to keep his butt glued to the couch?

Stay posted, I'm going to add a video of him walking soon.