Accident or Divine Intervention?

The afternoon begins as any other. After a satisfying lunch, the girls and I spend the hour before nap time playing in Emma's room. 1:00pm rolls around, nap time in our house, but friskiness abounds so I'm guessing it will take some effort. Chloe is also battling a cold complete with cough and runny nose, which makes it harder for her to get settled down to sleep. I lay Chloe down, the coughing ensues, then the crying when she becomes frustrated that she can't suck her thumb with a plugged up nose. I let her work on it for awhile while I read Emma her nap time story. Emma is tucked in, eyes closed tightly in hopes that sleep will come easily. I sit down at my sewing machine to work on my Christmas stockings. Chloe goes in and out of fussing and almost falling asleep, we're almost there. Then Emma calls from her room, "Mommy!" I come in knowing what petition will come next, smile hiding behind my lips. "Emma's havin a rough time, I'm just not tired. See, I'm happy, I'm not grumpy! Can I have a quiet time, I don't need a nap today?" Chloe revs up the crying and I can tell she's given up trying to fall asleep as I can tell she's now standing up in the crib. I tell Emma she can watch her Little Bear movie while I check on Chloe and then have some quiet time of my own. She happily agrees, I set her up with the movie, then go in to rock with Chloe for a bit. "You're the end of the rainbow, my pot of gold, you're daddy's little girl, to have and to hold, a precious gem is what you are, you're mommy's bright and shining start..." CRASH! BOOM! A big noise comes from the living room! I jump up, my heart and I race into the living room hoping for the best. Low and behold, the T.V. is face down on the floor and Emma is on the couch looking like a deer in headlights. My own eyes bugging out, in a slow monotone grumble I ask, "WHAT. DID. YOU. DO?!?" Apparently, she had climbed up on the armoire and pulled the T.V. off it's shelf because she "didn't want to watch T.V. anymore". In dumbfounded awe I ask, "why didn't you just push the off button?" She's been forbidden to climb on the armoire before, so the appropriate consequences ensued, accompanied with a stern explanation of what could have happened to her and how sad mommy and daddy would be if she was really hurt and needed to go to the hospital. She was genuinely remorseful, poor thing, and scared by the whole thing, which hopefully made a lasting impression. Upon inspection of the T.V., I realized that the power cord was torn in half by the whole ordeal. So until we buy a new cord, and assuming there was no internal damage, we are without television. I must say, I'm not so sure I want it back. I'd like to see how our lives change without that black box tempting us with trance-like, imagineless, inactivity on a daily basis. I must admit, sometimes I put a movie in for Emma just so I can get some things done uninterrupted. But what am I depriving her imagination from in the process, how am I thwarting her creativity? Heaven forbid boredom set in, whatever would she do?! Do I so easily forget life is not about constant entertainment? That sometimes the greatest thoughts and bursts of creativity come from times of nothingness, times when we must invent our next thought our action. Don't worry, I'm not going to get on some anti-television rampage, but let's just say that my daughter literally tearing our T.V. from the wall gave me all kinds of inspiration to seriously limit our family's use of it. I'm going to think twice the next time I want the "easy way out". I think a few more trips to the library and a few less movies on during the day is in order. Accident or Divine intervention, I don't know, you be the judge. But I'm thinking perhaps a little bit of both!