Favorite Characters

We watch a variety of shows here at various times, depending on when I'm working that day. We switch it up because I can only handle so much of any one kids' show. They're fairly irritating, I would say. Of course, so are most adult shows.

I work in the living room, so I see all these shows, and I've ended up with a couple of favorite characters.

1) Gerald on Sid the Science Kid. I love him. He's vibrant and full of energy and shows how kids can be just this side of good even if they're acting hyper. He's got funny ideas, and he's confident in himself. I find him to be a good role model for my kids, even if he is a little scary looking.

2) Swiper. He's, quite simply, the least annoying character on Dora. His "oh, man!" is adorable, and it's proved in the Christmas special that he has a good heart.


3) Ernie. He's been my favorite Sesame St. character since I was a kid. For many of the same reasons I love Gerald, in fact. He's lively, optimistic, fun, and funny. He's inquisitive. Even if he's annoying Bert or bothering his neighbors, he's trying to make life better for them. Plus, he has a band of counting sheep. Does it get cooler? I still remember the mummy skit. It still scares the heck out of me. Ernie is where it's at.

4) Duck. All the same reasoning. Apparently, I love silly, fun-loving, slightly annoying characters with charisma and a good heart. What can I say.



5) Eeyore. The one exception to my pattern. Something about his glum, pessimistic demeanor is so endearing to me. Yes, he sees the worst in everything, but he brightens up when his friends come through for him, which is almost every episode. Plus, he never takes his feelings out on other people, and he's always willing to see the other side. It just takes a little convincing.

Honorable mentions go to Kermit the Frog, the Moonbear, the Spider Monkeys, and Curious George (tied with The Man in the Yellow Hat).

Who are your favorites?

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Moment of the Week - 54: Pirate Dora Play

And now my children will re-enact Dora rallying the troops after their treasure chest gets stolen.

They take turns playing Dora and the crowd. It's hilarious.


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Franchise Flops

I hardly ever buy commercial icon stuff, not only out of any belief that my kids shouldn't be advertisements for a company, but also because that stuff is so damn expensive.

You take a $1 plate, you put Mickey Mouse on it, and it becomes a $10 plate.

I know because I got the kids Mickey Mouse plates for Christmas, thinking I was treating them.

Silly me. First of all, the kids don't care. They're just as happy eating from the plain pink or green sectioned plates I got for a buck at the Publix. Secondly, the set-up isn't even remotely practical. One big plate area, for the main piece of the meal (way bigger than necessary.), and two teeny tiny "ears" for the side dishes. Seriously, I can fit, like, three peas in those side dish sections. No good.

Most irritatingly, they're badly made. I get that I'm not supposed to cut bites on the plate itself due to the laminate, but sometimes it's just not practical to cut the meat on my plate first and then transfer. I believe I used a knife on these plates once, right after I got them. I hadn't thought about the laminate until I saw the results, which at the time were minimal. Now?

As you can see, the dishwasher was kinder to one of the plates than the other. Both need to be tossed out. Little pieces of plastic mixed in with food isn't ideal, now, is it? But, the whole plate came undone after just one cut-up pork-chop experience and lots of washes.

And now, I have to hear a million questions about where Mickey Mouse went, whenever the babies so much as catch a glimpse of these no-longer-used plates. It's unpleasant all around.

I recently stocked up on these, six of which cost less than half of what the two Mickey plates cost.

Perfectly-sized sections, stackable for storage, holds up well against a knife blade. They're great.

This franchise phenomenon doesn't end with dinnerware. My mother recently bought the kids some Dora underwear. The kids had been wearing underwear for quite a while before that, so I had plenty of regular pairs around already.

The Dora underwear pairs are shot. They're done. I'm tossing them. After less than three months' time, they're unravelling at the seams, tearing and breaking down. The underwear I'd bought months before Dora made her appearance, on the other hand, are still holding up strong.

Just because an item has a picture of some popular icon on it doesn't mean it's any better than any other item out there. In fact, it's probably worse. And it probably costs 10 times more.

No, thank you.  Back to generic babywear for me.


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Life Lessons Dora-style

My kids watch Dora the Explorer every morning.  I know, I know, but seriously, I need to make breakfast, and they need to not be in the kitchen when I do it.

Anyway, one of their favorite games is to pretend they are Boots and Dora (sidenote: Natalina chose to be the sidekick, Boots, before Dulce chose to be Dora.  My husband and I are both Diego.)  They go on adventures as the characters, making stuff up as they go along, putting toddler rules in place.  It's really quite magical to watch.

The other day we were at Wendy's eating lunch.  I know, I know, but seriously, it was a weekend and we had just been running around at the park.  I stand by the decision - it was worth it.

Anyway, the babies were eating their burger when Natalina got a sly look in her eye.  She eased down from her chair, stealthily made her way over to my husband and I, slid in between us, and grabbed his keys from the tabletop with a huge grin on her face.

She proudly carried her winnings back to her seat, and looked at us, beaming.  I said offhandedly to her, "Oh, Boots...wait, that doesn't look like something Boots would do.  That's something Swiper would do!"

The look of surprise and abject horror on her little face was priceless.  Swiper?  How could she be Swiper?  Oh, no, oh, no, this wouldn't do at all.

In a flash, she jumped back off her chair and returned the keys to their rightful place on the table.  She got back to her seat, very seriously.  She sat and looked at me, then her father, then the keys.  She stuck out her hand in a stop motion.

"No fiping!  No fiping!  Fiper, no fiping!"

I'm still laughing about this today.

But all laughing aside, this shows an important part to the television, if you use it right.  Television can't be used to teach your kids for you, but it can help teach your kids in addition to you.

For instance, swiping things - taking them or stealing them - hasn't really come up yet, in the moral sense.  Sure, I can tell one twin not to take the other one's toy, but my words don't really mean anything to them because they don't understand the effect their actions are having.  My punishments don't really help them stop doing it because they don't understand how the two are connected.  So that even if they did stop taking each other's things, they would be doing so only out of fear of punishment, and not because they understood how taking something from someone else made that person feel.

When a cartoon fox takes something from Dora or Boots (characters in whom my kids have invested their imagination) the characters get upset.  They slowly and thoroughly explain the problem to the viewer, and then they take action to get their stuff back.

This teaches my kids that taking things is wrong because it makes people feel bad.  It further teaches them that you can try to stop people from taking things from you by talking to them about it first.  It further teaches them that if the person takes your stuff anyway, you need to figure out a way to get it back without exacting revenge upon the person who did the taking.  It teaches correct protocol and reasoning, and shows the babies why you should or shouldn't do certain things.

Would I have eventually taught them this myself?  Absolutely.  Would my adult mind have been able to get all of those concepts through to them in one coherent repetitive message?  No.  At least not until they were older.  Dora has expanded upon a lesson I've been trying to get through to them since they were infants.  Dora has correctly instilled that message in them months before I would have been able to do it without the aid of the cartoon.

So, no, the TV does not teach kids everything they need to know, but I feel like if you use it correctly, it can enhance the lessons you may be trying (and failing) to instill in your kids at a young age.

Maybe Dora isn't so bad after all.  Or maybe I'm just rationalizing my TV usage.  Either way, I got a very cute moment out of it.


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Moment of the Week - 23

"Boots" and "Diego" cross the "river."

22-minute Shows Are Worthless

It's 9:07 a.m.  Dora is on to give me a few minutes while I try to make breakfast for everyone.  I manage to clean out the dishwasher and fix my coffee before 9:22 a.m. when I hear "Mama.  Mama!  Glasses!  Oops!  Again!  Oh no!  Mama, mama, mama, hugs!  Hugs!  Green couch!  Mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama."

By 9:23 a.m. I have two toddlers assaulting my legs, pulling on my hands, threatening to cry, needing attention, wanting to play.  I give up my tasks and entertain them best I can for the next seven minutes.  Since they were watching Dora and wanted to see more of the show, I spent much of that time explaining to them that they have to wait for the commercials.

However, by the time 9:30 rolls around, they're immersed in the blocks we are playing with, and they protest when I get up to continue fixing breakfast.  They assault my legs, pull on my hands, threaten to cry and demand more attention.  I turn back from the kitchen where they have followed me and settle on the couch, attempting to get them interested in the television again.

It's 9:37 when they finally become immersed in the show, and I sneak away again.  I put the tea on the boil and the bread in the toaster.  It's now 9:41.  Someone has gone on the potty!  A break while we celebrate and take care of the aftermath.  At 9:46, I'm back in the kitchen.  I butter the toast.  I take the fruit out of the fridge and pour the cereal.  It's 9:50.  Someone else has gone on the potty!  Another break, another celebration.  By the time we're done with that, it's 9:53 a.m., and the commercials are on again.

Good luck trying to put milk in the cereal and care to the now screaming tea kettle.

"Mama, mama!  Blocks!  Mama!  Look!  Mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama."

I sigh as I head back into the living room and distract them for seven more minutes.  By now, thank goodness, it's 10 a.m. and Sesame St. is on.  By 10:06 a.m. the babies are finally getting into Sesame St., and I can usually put them off by telling them to watch it while I fix the tea, make my husband's lunch, set the table, and eat.

I look up in amazement as I'm eating my breakfast.  It's been at least 8 minutes without interruption.  Is that possible?  It is possible. But only because the creators of Sesame St. got it right.  That show is 57 minutes long.

What I'm trying to say is that 30 minutes of one uninterrupted show is worth more than 90 minutes of 22-minute shows.  I'm trying to say that 22-minute shows are absolutely worthless.

When a mother sets her children in front of the television all morning, that's not really the case at all.  Four minutes of television at a time does not a bad mother make.

So, yes, my kids supposedly watch TV for two hours each morning.  And, no, I don't feel bad about it; I don't feel like a careless mother.  Because, really, in sum total, they've watched about 20 scattered minutes of Dora, and a blissful half hour of Sesame St.  (Sesame St. remains on until 11, but I'm done with breakfast and able to better tend to them exclusively at that point.)

It is ridiculously hard to make a breakfast - that would normally only take 15 uninterrupted minutes - in spurts of three and four minutes.  Tasks that should take no time at all can take hours.  What I need is Dora to last an hour.  If it did, my kids would spend less time "in front of the TV," because they'd leave me alone long enough for me to actually do what I need to do, and I'd be able to return to them fully much more quickly.

Twenty-two minute shows are worthless.

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