Curious George

The greatest gift in child rearing that God has given me the past 6 months is Curious George! I know that sounds ridiculous, but let me explain. Mason is a goer (is that a real word?) He is on the go from 7 am to 8 pm with two nap breaks. When he starts to get tired he gets cranky, (yes I know he gets that from me). The problem with this is that sometimes I need him to just stop for a few minutes. Which for him is quite a challenge if he's not asleep. Here comes in Curious George.
Mason has never been a fan of t.v. and we hardly ever had it on, but one day while at a play date Curious George was on t.v. and Mason became captivated. Since then I have been on a hunt to collect all the dvd's of the show available. Which has been quite a task as Wal-Mart and Target only sell one of them at a time and it's hit or miss as to what they have and when they have it.
Being a teacher I know all the research on t.v. and brain development and the effect of commercials on kid's attention span, etc. So we hardly ever watched t.v. And perhaps that is why I love George shows all the more because for 20 uninterrupted minutes Mason is captivated by a full story of learning. Which also nicely buys me 20 minutes to do the million things I need to.
Just recently Nana gave Mason money for the Curious George movie DVD. I bought it rather reluctantly thinking a one year old isn't going to sit through an entire full length movie. So one night when it was just the two of us, I popped in the movie and to my utter amazement he stayed awake and barely blinked for the entire thing! Mason loved the movie. Now when he is acting cranky or tired but not ready for nap or bed I ask him if he wants to have an adventure with George and he goes to the sofa with his green sippy and Woobie to watch George. He even asks me to join him so I can scratch his back while he laughs at the curious little monkey.