Family TV

Today was our first nice day in a while, and we went to the playground. Kate rode her bike around the tennis court, did a good job riding, got frustrated when she couldn't start on her own, got excited when she got going. Jack met a friend and his brother and they played basketball, then all four of them played on the slide and the rings. Kate is a little monkey on the rings. On the slide, they did this treasure hunt game they invented where they went slowly down head first to collect wood chips. Silly but fun, clever.

But what I'm going to write about instead is family TV, because with all the rain and cold, there's been a decent amount of that lately. Whereas in the past we'd send them off to watch their kids shows, we've been doing more family things in evenings.

The first, which started at Disney, is Gilligan's Island. TV land has started airing them in blocks, and they've become our regular weekend evening viewing. They both love it, probably as much as I did as a kid, watching it with Robin, some, and Scott. I feel like we might have done skits, too, though I am not sure. I know we loved it, and I suspect I enjoy it now for both the humor and the nostalgia, and watching it as a family. Uh, I am not watching them on my own.

The second is Cosmos, a science series that's fascinating and incredible and lots of it is tough for even me to keep up with, so I am sure it loses Jack and Kate here and there. But Jack is fascinated and Kate is entertained, and so we snuggle up together on the couch and watch it with rapt attention.

It's weird, because I have always wanted to be careful that they don't watch too much TV, and I forgot how good it can be when it's, you know, good. We watch it and talk about it during, and after, and the next day, and look forward to the next one. Will Gilligan get off the island? Will we get off Planet Earth?

It's not the playground, but it's a lot of fun sometimes.