My son is 20 months old now, and generally hasn’t paid much attention to the TV. That’s starting to change, but still, most of the time if he’s in the room and the TV is on, he’s busy doing something else, often pestering someone to help him page through one of his books. But the other morning, he toddled into the living room where I was sitting, grabbed a book adaptation of Happiness is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown from the table, pointed eagerly to the cover, then to the TV set, and to make sure I was paying attention, repeated the whole mime again. This boy, who only rarely puts two words together, was letting me know that he wanted to watch Peanuts on TV. So any concern about over-exposing him to television got swept aside for my appreciation for his choice to communicate and his tastes; I threw A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving into the DVD player (chosen for the quality of slapstick within), and he cheerfully stared at it for the whole running time.

(By the way I forgot to point it out, but that fine graphic novel adaptation of Happiness is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown is now shipping from Amazon.)

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