Dora the Baby Whisperer

"Recognizing the negative effects of television on children, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that children 2 years and older watch less than 2 hours of television per day and that children younger than 2 years watch no television."

That's all well and fine, but someone needs to explain this to Baby. She's recently made a new friend named Dora and I don't think she will give her up because she's under 2.

I didn't mean for this to happen. I mean, I knew what the AAP had to say on babies and TV. But Sister brought home a Dora DVD from the library and Baby, who had never shown an interest in TV before, was transfixed. It's not like I sat her down and said, "Here, Baby, sit in front of this big screen TV and stare at it like a brainless zombie until your brain turns to mush." After seeing it once, she began to ask for it.

Now she calls for Tico and Backpack. She even tries to say "calliente" at Dora's prompting. Heck, she practically has it memorized. She stands up right before Dora sings the "We Did It!" song, anticipating the music, then breaks out in dance, mimicing her spanish-speaking friend perfectly.

It's adorable.

So, tell me, you've just found a way to keep your toddler occupied for more than 30 seconds. What do you do?

You take advantage.

If she is whiney or extra obnoxious or throwing a fit, all I have to say is, "You wanna watch Dora?" Suddenly she forgets everything else and hotfoots it to the TV.

There goes my Mother of the Year award.