Once Upon A Time

I fear I have given Nella too much time in front of the TV this week. She is allowed a certain number of PBS cartoons in a given day but I introduced the wonderful world of Pixar and Dreamworks animation. As a result she often wanted to forgo The Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About That and Curious George for Madagascar and Finding Nemo. We only watch a little bit at a time, but still I can't help feeling like maybe I spoiled her a bit-and not in a good way. More books and less television might have been a better idea.

Case-in-point:

She had her friends Thomas and Bryan over last night and I thought she would be thrilled to have someone else's energy and attention for a while, but instead she was kind of cranky. It could be that having them here without Mama and Daddy was too weird for her. She mentioned missing them several times-more than she has all week. Of course, it also could be that she was just cranky and I'm over analyzing the poor little peanut too much.

Side Note: At bedtime, when we talked about her day, I asked her if she had fun and she said (and for the record, I am not paraphrasing here-this is her exact quote) "I did have fun but I hurt Thomas' feelings 'cause I was a little on edge tonight." I had to hug and tell her that I thought Thomas would forgive her, that we all get a little on edge sometimes. Nella and Thomas are both very bright kids -they are thoughtful and intuitive with each other despite a big age difference. Truly, children never cease to amaze me.

Anyway ... she couldn't settle into games and everything was terribly dramatic so when she asked for Nemo through her tears and obvious frustration, I caved.

But this morning, after she received a special Valentine's Monkey from her parents and had a fun breakfast of blueberry pancakes I walked in to find this scene in the living room:

She found some of the books I am using for my thesis and was reading "Once Upon A Time" stories to the newest addition to her entourage.

So maybe I haven't spoiled her too much-and least not in a bad way.