Saturday morning cartoons workflows - then and now

Recently I was fondly reminiscing about watching Saturday morning cartoons. I'd wake up at the crack of dawn, go downstairs, and watch me some Bugs Bunny. I even remember waking up once and my shows weren't on, only to find out I was awake before cartoons even came on.

Watching cartoons was a pretty simple process, even for a 5 year old. It went something like this:

TV watching in 1977

So, I was thinking, why don't my kids do this? They certainly get up early enough on Saturdays, so that's not the problem. Well, for one, there's nothing special about Saturday mornings. There are cartoons available all the time, whether they're on cable, the DVR, the DVD player, etc..

However, I think the biggest obstacle is the modern TV watching workflow. It goes something like this:

TV watching in 2012

Now, if history is any indicator, my kids are going to be more tech-savvy than my wife and I. However, they're only four and two years old (and a one month old, if we're counting everyone) right now, and this is a little much for them.  

So, what do they do on Saturday morning? Well, it goes something like this:

Entertaining kids in 2012: the iPad

Homemade Breast Pump

Lisa and I are expecting our third boy in October.  Five years ago we were expecting our first child, and I was getting a sticker shock as we were buying all of our baby supplies.  I kept joking that I could save a little money on a breast pump by making one myself - all I'd need would be a little tubing, which I could get from our fish tank, and some sort of pump.  

I eventually decided this would make a good practical joke, and shot this video.  Can you tell I had more time on my hands back then?

Steamroller Shoes

When my son was about 3 years old we were walking through the toy aisle when he excitedly pointed and exclaimed "look dad, steamroller shoes!"  He was pointing at a pair of kid's rollerskates, but I was tickled by his imagination so I drew this picture: 

Daddy on a Bobcat

Drew, my 3.5 year old, announced that

"when I was born, daddy was on a bobcat"

While this isn't necessarily true I got a little chuckle imagining that, if it were true, it would look something like this . . .

Snake Pizza

Here's what my lunch looked like to me:

Pizza

My almost-three-year-old looked at his slice of plain pepperoni 'za, looked at my piece, and looked back at his again.  Apparently my pizza looked like this to him:

Snake Pizza

because he asked me if it was snake pizza.

The funny thing is, he didn't say it like it was a gross thing or a scary thing. His tone didn't suggest that he would be unwiling to eat it.  He just wondered if it was snake pizza.

The Mystery of the Baby in the Rice.

Here's a mystery that took a little time for me to solve.  First, a little background: On February 14 we got the kids a couple helium balloons that had little weights at the bottom of them.  More about that later.

So, I put Mason (9 mo old) on the floor of his and Drew's bedroom because I had to run to the rest room (except I call it the bathroom).  I put one of the Valentine's balloons near him just to keep him entertained.  When I returned from the bathroom I noticed that Mason was sitting in a pile of rice.  It was almost surreal - I was sure there was no rice there a couple minutes ago. Could I have missed rice on the floor? I don't think so.  And why would it have been there, anyway?  Could we have a Chinese poltergeist?

I thought about my older son at daycare.  When he was a little younger they would have "sensory tables" where they would have a recessed table filled with things that would provide a different sensory experience: water, dirt, even coffee grounds and flour.  Sometimes I'd bring him home from school and these things would fall out of his pockets and diapers throughout the evening.  Could they have had a rice sensory table in the infant room? Would they really give babies raw rice?  It didn't sound like a very good idea, but even if they did, this was a LOT of rice.  I couldn't fathom that there had been this much rice in his diaper and I hadn't noticed it before now.

I'm sure anyone watching would have described me as the poster child for confusion as I dazedly looked around the room seeking an explanation for the sudden appearance of the cylindrical grains.  I left the room and returned at least a couple times thinking I'd come up with an explanation for this. Eventually my eyes came across the Valentine balloon across the room and against the ceiling.  That balloon had had a little bag tied to its string to weigh it down. I didn't know exactly what was in the bag weighing it down before, but now I suddenly did: rice.  Sure enough, the bag was still tied to the sting but it was now open and empty.  

I was mostly relieved, because I didn't have to completely rethink my understanding of the natural world to explain spontaneous rice generation.  I just lived in a world where curious babies could destroy things, including a balloon's ballast.  The fact that babies could destroy things was already known to me, and suddenly everything made sense again.

I picked Mason up and left the room.  When I got a chance I went back to clean up the rice, but another mystery had developed: most of the rice had disappeared.  However, this phenomenon, while on the surface appeared paranormal, was immediately explained: the dog had ate it.

Lions hang upside down under water

On the way home last week my 2.5 year old declared that lions hang upside down under water.  I told him that I didn't think that was true, but he immediately said it was.  This was one of those times where I realized he was confident in his statement and any attempt to make a reasonable argument would be met with steely resolve.  

The more I thought about it, however, the more I liked the idea of a lion hanging upside down in the water.  I decided to draw a picture, first on a napkin and then a fancier illustration.  Here is the result (click to see full picture):

click for full size

 I like to paint, draw, and illustrate, but it's hard to find inspiration.  I now have a new muse, my little boy.  There will never be a shortage of great ideas!

So, I'm curious - how would you explain this picture?