If you’ve hung around the mom-blogging world long enough now, I bet you’ve heard an endless amount of advice to limit or even eliminate screen time for children, especially the wee ones ages two and under.

Well, I’m here to tell you that Uncle YouTube saves my life on the regular. Today, for example, I was battling yet another bout of tonsillitis, and so my husband went to church without me and Lil’ Ziggy. And show of hands, who has experience in this: when hubby is home alone with the little tyke, the little tyke has no problem playing happily by himself and they have a grand ol’ time. But when MOM is home alone with the kid, he just wants to be ON YOU at all times, starts whining the second you dare to do anything that doesn’t involve him being ON YOU, including preparing meals, cleaning up or pretty much anything at all? Well that’s what my life is like. Lil’ Ziggy pulls out his box of blocks and makes a lovely multicoloured tower when it’s just him and Chris at home but if I’m there? He’s like a vortex that sucks up any last remaining shred of time, energy or sanity until Chris comes home and I can do something as simple as go to the bathroom without a child hanging onto my leg. I suppose I should take it as a compliment that he enjoys my company so much but when I literally have to YELL for him to get off me so I can vacuum the floor? And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why my house is a mess.

Now where was I? Oh yes, the screen time. So I’m sick yet again, and I’m home alone with said vortex, and all he wants is to climb onto my shoulders and yank my hair and have me read the same book about dump trucks over and over again and I just. can’t. do. it. So Uncle YouTube to the rescue! Thankfully there are a ton of child-friendly nursery rhyme channels that occupy him enough that I can pour a cup of coffee and actually drink it while it’s still warm. I’m sure I’ll miss it in a few years.

The moral of the story?

Screen time saves lives. Don’t let the haters get you down.

So what the heck has been going on since the last time I blogged? Well, I have written a bunch of posts in my head but they always seem to appear while I’m neck-deep in everything else, and they don’t make it onto the page.

Truth be told, nothing spectacular has happened to me in the last several months. Just work and home and constantly being sick. I’m serious. There is pretty much never a time when one of us isn’t sick anymore. Either we pass the same stupid cold around or Lil’ Ziggy has Hand Foot and Mouth (THAT was a fun week, and thank goodness for Uncle YouTube for allowing me to continue working without a crusty toddler ON ME at all times)

We had a lovely Christmas in which Lil’ Ziggy got way too many presents (isn’t that always the way it goes?), and a quiet New Year. We’ve been taking advantage of any decent weather we can get to take Lil’ Ziggy out for walks in the snow, and he just finished another round of swimming lessons.

I made Lil’ Ziggy’s costume for Halloween again – this year, he was an Ewok! I think the body of the costume can be worn for a second year, but I’ll have to redo the orange hood as I unfortunately made it a little on the small side. Still pretty proud of it though!

This weekend, before I found out that I had tonsillitis, we took Lil’ Ziggy down to the WinterPLAY Festival, which is an annual outdoor festival that takes place on the ice and banks of the Snye. I snapped this shot of him on one of his many trips down the ice slide:

Where do I go from here?

I’ve really missed blogging, so my goal going forward is to start blogging again on a regular basis. This means a few things:

1. I’m going to start writing down my blog ideas when they come to me using Evernote, so no matter where I am, I can jot down blog posts before they escape my brain forever.
2. I’m going to dedicate time each week to writing blog posts.
3. I’m going to look at freshening up the design of my blog.

So I’m happy to say that there’s more to come from Boothopia!

Question for any blogger friends who also work fulltime – how do you find the time or energy to keep blogging on a regular basis?