So this week we celebrated my son's birthday. He is officially 1 year old!
I have so many thoughts and feelings all crystalized into this little pint sized kid waddling through our house on an infinite loop.
It feels like he is a new person twice a month. He is going through so many changes so fast. I forgot how hard growing up is sometimes.
Now that he's a year he's about to get more changes thrusted upon him. I feel bad for him in a way, but this is part of life.
So, I might as well add re-evaluating his screen time to the mix. : )
This is our first child. We don't know what we're doing, still don't. Mom keeps all of us grounded and I fill in any gaps that comes up. So far it's been working for us.
Below are some highlights on what we did during his newborn season. I share this in the hope that it may give others ideas or comfort in this area.
Apple Watch Was His First Screen
This was such an accident. But after around Month 3 I noticed that he kept going after my arm. I thought nothing of it at the time, until the changing table one day.
I found out that he was eying my Apple Watch, since he was born.
(Sigh, so much for limiting his screen time.)
However, the watch was MVP during diaper changes.
Every so often baby will swipe and push buttons that will ping my real phone, change the watch face, set timers without me knowing.
It kept him down long enough to change the diaper, as a first time dad, that's a win.
Daily Diet of Music and Screen Savers
Every morning we turn on the TV and open the Apple Music.
We have playlists filled with with songs from many genres including Kids Classical, Sunday School, and even Kids Jazz.
In the evening we do grown up versions of those playlists. So Kid's Classical day becomes Adult Classical Day.
When we first started out, Mom and I were unsure if screensavers were too much for him. Actually, we were debating if any TV was too much.
Eventually we came to the conclusion that it wasn't feasible to have no TV at all, so a "radio with a screensaver" is where we ended up. And it worked out great.
While Mom and Dad may have gotten sick of a few songs, there were hundreds of songs across our playlists on any given day so we were good.
It was cool when he started to show favorites. Sometimes he bounces to some songs, or just stops whatever he's doing and focus on the beat.
Recently he has learned to pause when the music stops to see what's next. That is cool from a child development POV, but yea, I'm not sure how I feel about him losing focus like that.
But he's 1 year old so I'm not trying to overthink this.
The Cure for Zoom Fatigue
It was established pretty early that FaceTime and Zoom were exempt from all screen time limits just because we have family that's not local.
Once he understood what a video call was, his face lights up. One part because he gets to use mommy or daddy's toys. (Phone or Computer) and the other is that the people on the other side are just happy to see him.
It gets to the point where mommy and I are noticing our baby has a FaceTime persona.
We don't think too hard on that. We socialize with people in real life and on screen. So for him Zoom seems to be a treat and it's hard for anyone on the call to resist a cute baby.
I'm pretty sure Mommy's co-workers briefly enjoyed being on Zoom during those times.
He Wants Mommy and Daddy's Toys
Speaking of Mommy and Daddy's toys, we are finding out that the concept of giving baby a kid's model of say a remote control, or phone isn't going to work.
He wants our phone because Mommy and Daddy wants that phone.
It makes it hard to barter with him sometimes, so at those points we don't barter, one of the perks of parenthood.
But as he gets older this is going to get harder.
Rant: The Cube is Not Fun
As a whole, we stuck with low tech type of toys and books. We only have a handful of toys that requires batteries.
There is one that erks me every time we turn it on.
It's an activity cube that plays a jingle that's shamelessly promotes itself. The song ends with the line.
"The cube is fun for everyone."
I'm sitting here like.
"Don't you tell my baby what's fun and what's not!
Baby decides that for himself.
And if you're not fun, you're out!"
Based on the last year, baby thinks the cube is ok.
He has other toys that see more action.
Onwards to 1!
And now he is 1!
I really haven't delve into podcasts or other what to expect guides. I figure we will get the essentials when we go to the doctors.
His meals are already changing a lot, I'm not rushing introducing new toys or TV shows or anything like that.
For now he is having fun running around our house with reckless abandon. And if I'm honest, I am too. Even if he cuts corners way to tight and takes a spill.
Where do we go from here?
If you have little ones let me know if you have any suggestions on how you manage your family's tech.
It's only going to be harder from here. I'm actually looking forward to it. He is becoming his own person in front of our eyes.
He's growing up! and we couldn't be happier.
