One of the things you quickly realize when you are in charge of a small human, is that you talk and sing and read and talk a lot more than you used to.

Any sort of television viewing for children under the age of two for more than one hour is harmful to the brain development of the child. (Side note: Sort of hilariously, PBS does everything it can to convince you otherwise until finally admitting that, yeah maybe television for more than an hour isn’t too great.)

While I still love reading the books we have for Baker (and we keep getting more!), I’ve already memorized Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? (spoiler alert: A red bird). So! I have started reading Baker “regular” books, most frequently Oswald Chambers’ My Utmost for His Highest. What better way to stay disciplined and in tune with the Lord, than to share these insights and words with my two month old? They’re good length devotionals: I usually read one after I’ve changed Baker’s diaper while he’s chilling, staring at the poster on the wall.

When Baker and I are out on our own in the car (picking up lunch usually), we listen to The New Yorker’s Short Fiction Podcast.

These things are awesome. They have authors read other author’s short fiction works and then analyze and give insight on them. These are all free of charge, which is just ridiculous. So far Baker and I have listened to two Vladimir Nabokov stories (he’s one of my favorite authors) and a John Cheever story. I’ve listened to a few more on my own and they’re all top quality. It’s great to discover work by authors I had never heard of before or didn’t know a lot about beforehand.

On the music front, we go with a pretty wide mix of music. We do the classical thing, although it’s not as helpful as once was thought. Baker of course has been exposed to more than a healthy dose of Disney music.

A couple of nights ago as I was rocking with him, I gave myself a challenge: Sing every song from every Disney film starting with A Little Mermaid. I did pretty well, I got all the way to Pocahontas before it was time to get up, but I did shamefully struggle with Aladdin.

Anyways, Baker also rocks out to the O’ Brother Where Art Thou? soundtrack which has a great mix of traditional bluegrass songs and new moderny bluegrass. Baker also likes pretty much anything you can dance to but especially the following: he loves Jack Johnson, loves the DCB, and of course loves the traditional kids songs (Bushel and a Peck, etc.). Unlike all Getterman men before him, Baker seems to be a bit of a dancer.

So there you have it, all the new ways we’re trying to entertain our boy. It’s actually a lot of fun, despite how exhausting it can be. To see his eyes light up when Kristin dances with him or smile and giggle as I sing to him, is just about as great as it can get, I imagine.