a remote named Ashley

The girl’s mom moved out a couple of weeks ago. Life has calmed down a bit at the old Cracker Factory. We have our regular schedule now, well, as regular as I ever get anyway. It involves quite a bit of driving, as in 300 miles or so on the PT Cruiser every three days. Such is life.

The girls now have separate bedrooms. They are psyched about it. The 7 yr old is one of the most technologically hooked up little girls I know. She has digital cable and color TV in her bedroom, her own computer with broadband internet, her own iPod, and her own cell phone.

Sigh. That’s what happens when you are a custodial grandparent. But, she is a good student, gets straight A’s and I don’t allow TV watching in the bedroom at night. Or Computer for that matter.

The baby, has the TV that the oldest outgrew, the Disney princess TV that I paid an exorbitant amount of money for about 4 years ago. But, the remote was not to be found, well, actually the parent remote (it came with TWO remotes, one for the child, one for the parent). We found the child remote, which even with new energizer’s inserted was woefully broken.

The baby was MUCH INCENSED by the fact that SHE did not possess a remote for her TV in HER bedroom. This was patently unfair in the highest degree. Her cousin got brand new furniture in HER bedroom. Her big sister got a computer in HER bedroom and SHE doesn’t even have a remote for her TV.

She went ON and ON about it. Apparently, in a four year olds life, THIS is a big deal.

So, we tried all the programmable remotes in the household. We have a whopping 7 TVs in our home which is weird as we don’t watch a whole lot of TV. We had a plethora of remotes to try out, and NONE of them worked.

My daughter-in-law jumped on the internet and found the manufacturer of the TV and emailed me the link.

For a mere $35.00 I was able to purchase, via the miracle of online credit card shopping, a Disney remote, pink and lavender, parent unit for her TV.

It arrived yesterday. Unpacked and given to the baby, she was so excited. I told her that since it was bedtime (by the time we arrived home at after 8pm) she wouldn’t be able to watch TV until tomorrow morning. She was so very excited about the remote arriving, she could have cared less.

The remote is named Ashley. Ashley has her own little bed made out of Kleenex in the little pink canvas drawer in the white shelf unit which doubles as a night stand next to the baby’s bed.

Peace reigns supreme at the Cracker Factory.

Thanksgiving is one week away. It used to be my favorite holiday. Now, I am DREADING it. I am not even sure why? How did time sneak up on me like that?