Um...Do Over?

OK  I have to admit, I'm being a bit of a hypocrite.  True to my views posted in The Compromise , last Sunday Brian and I kicked Charlie off of the computer to play outside right before dinner.  Of course that is the now the infamous 10 minute interval when he broke his arm.

 He's doing well now, still scared about what happened, but much more his old, wanting to be very active, self.  In fact, just walking through Target yesterday, he had a little skip in his step, tripped and fell.  Straight down to his knees, what with no left arm (his dominant, as a lefty) to brace him.  He looked rather scared and darn it, that stung!  In that moment Brian and I looked at each other, a bit terrified.  We've got to keep this kid from being so active right now.  An elbow full of newly inserted pins can fall apart if it is landed on.  Jeez!

I thought the anxiety of the situation had subsided, and now I see a whole new level of it emerging.  I guess that's parenthood!  (Insert the snickers of parents everywhere, glad it's our turn)!

So what did we do?  We, with the help of both sets of grandparents who feel so badly for him, bought him a new Nintendo dsi and a couple of games to occupy his time.  He did have one before, but it broke about 6 months ago, which is a whole other story.  Once we got done with errands, he began to play, and play, and play.  Yes,  4 hours.  

So I've now gone completely against my previous remarks. Now, 4 hours is excessive.  But as in the song from Sound of Music "how do you take a cloud and pin it down..."  Well I guess you put the cloud in front of a DS for a while.  Isn't some more of this type of play combined with some slower paced fresh air and sunshine at the beginning of the summer the lessor evil while he heals?