Audio book

"I thought this was just going to be exciting," Isaac said. "I didn't know it was going to be sad."

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I recently mentioned Isaac's TV-viewing habits and his determination to budget his 30 minutes of daily "screen time" so he can always watch a DVD while I'm nursing Laurel down for her nap. One way he preserves his screen time is by listening to audio books during Laurel's other nursing sessions.

Why is this an issue? As Laurel is easily distracted when nursing, I always take her into her room and shut the door. (And, I must admit, this gives me a mini-break to look at the Internet. And you wondered why I was so enthusiastic about extended breast-feeding. Bad mama!) According to Laurel's Trixie Tracker, she has recently been nursing five times a day for a total of about 70 minutes. About 25 minutes of nursing is after Isaac is already in bed, but this still leaves Isaac alone on four occasions during the day, for a total of about 45 minutes.

Isaac really dislikes being shut out of Laurel's room, which I understand. And I also understand that he wants to plan activities for this time, which is why he likes to be able to count on DVDs and audio books. I suspect he finds comfort in the media's power to entertain and distract, and this is also why he wants to watch (or listen) to the same things over and over again. (Every once in a while he will look at a book, draw, or play with his toys during this time, but he almost always does so simultaneously with media consumption, lying on the floor in the spare room in front of the TV or CD player.)

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I've gotten Isaac a number of chapter books on CD at the public library. He has listened to "The Mouse and the Motorcycle," the "My Father's Dragon" trilogy, "The Cricket in Times Square," and most recently "Betsy-Tacy."

The last title unfortunately prompted the quote from Isaac at the top of this post.

The audio book of "Betsy-Tacy" has two discs, and for about a week Isaac listened only to the first disc. (It was in the CD player in the spare room, while the second disc was out in the car.) He liked the first disc very much, and when we embarked on a long car trip, he was eager to finally listen to the second disc.

I had read the book as a child, and then again about 15 years ago, but it was only when the baby sister of one of the characters got very sick that I suddenly remembered that aspect of the plot. Uh-oh. Sure enough, in a few minutes Isaac's little voice came from the back seat of the car: "Did you hear them say that baby Bea died?"

And there we were, discussing child mortality as we drove down Interstate 880.

Isaac found the death sad, but it was sensitively handled and he dealt with it very well (much better than I did, blinking back tears as I drove along!). I was mostly glad that we were listening to the book together, and that Isaac didn't hear it for the first time all alone in the spare room.