"Dora talking!!!"
posted 08.02.2007 by Kristen

The girls haven't really watched much TV up until now. We don't have a TV in their playroom, there's no TV at their daycare, and it just hasn't been much of an issue one way or the other. But this morning they wanted to come into my room and "help" me get dressed for work instead of hanging in their playroom like they usually do, so in order to avert the grabby-hands of fear that usually ensue when they're in a less-than-optimally-babyproofed room of the house, I put them up on my bed and turned on the TV.

Dora the Explorer was on. They've only recently become aware of Dora -- because she's on the pull-ups they've just started wearing during the day at daycare. (Ximena is far braver than I and is working on potty training.) This is also how they learned about the Sesame Street characters and Mickey Mouse -- from their diapers, natch! I think they may also have a Dora book at daycare. In any case, Dora is relatively new to them, but they have taken quite a liking to her just from the pull-ups. (They also immediately obsessed on Elmo once they became aware of the pictures on their diapers, and on Mickey Mouse when we started using those. I swear there is some sort of encoded message to toddlers in the drawings of certain popular characters because they just latch on instantly to them. They never gave a crap about the other Sesame Street peeps or the Lion King pictures that preceded Mickey Mouse.)

It's pretty amusing because they say her name with a good rolled-R Spanish accent because Ximena is pretty much the only person they ever hear say her name. It comes out more like "Dor-da" than the way you would more swallow the R with an American accent.

Anyway, I turned on the TV and they immediately assumed the requisite toddler TV-watching posture -- sprawled out on the belly, propped up on elbows. How do they know?

And then...magic! "Dor-da! It's Dor-da! Dor-da talking, Mommy! Dor-da TALKING!" As if all their magical toddler dreams had suddenly come true! They never knew it could be so good! Not only does Dora look sassy on their diapers, but wow, she also TALKS! Why had no one made them aware of this before?

And then...the narration of the entire show began. "Monkey wearing boots, Mommy!" "Find ice cream truck, Mommy!" They only watched it for about 10 minutes (Alas, we did not get to see Dora and Boots find the aforementioned ice cream truck!) but all the way on the drive to Ximena's they continued talking excitedly about Dora and the ice cream truck.

So yeah, I'd say Dora is a hit.