LESSONS FROM DR. SCOTT

For anyone who doesn't already know, James has a slight obsession with the PBS show Dinosaur Train (which will thus be the theme of his birthday party this year, even though he already had a dinosaur themed party last year). We don't watch a lot of TV at home. In fact, we watch very little. I learned about Dinosaur Train from one of the Mama Blogs I follow, previewed an episode on YouTube, and decided to start DVRing it for James. Well, it's a hit, to say the least. He asks for it ALL THE TIME. On Tuesday nights, when Jay has class for an hour and a half (from after dinner up until James' bedtime), I let James watch all the Dinosaur Train he wants (we tend to keep a dozen or so episodes recorded at any one time). Dr. Scott the paleontologist is featured at the end of most Dinosaur Train episodes, and James likes him just as much as the "saurs" and "choo-choo". I had been video-taping him playing with his new shape-sorter toy, talking to him about the colors and shapes and numbers, when Dr. Scott came on. So James walked up to the TV screen and stood there, just like the kids on the show do. He then proceeded to point out the "rock" (repeatedly) and "lava" and "oval" and "circle" that he was seeing on TV. And I was duly impressed!