Hey! Dora's yelling at me!

Okay, fine, I'll admit it. I have a low tolerance for children's television. If it's not Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Firefly, I'm not all that interested. My kids don't get to watch too much television. Sadly, that's mostly because it makes me want to pierce my own eardrums rather than from any highfalutin' ideals about how much television children should watch.

But once in a while, we certainly do turn it on. I really like Super Why on PBS. Of course, B-Man has now decided he's scared of that show. Of course. So, it's mostly Curious George or Clifford that we watch.

I'd heard a lot about Dora from the boys' cousins, and the concept sounds wonderful: a girl who likes to explore (hey, I like to explore!) and she speaks Spanish sometimes (hey, I'd like my boys to know some Spanish). Sounds like a perfect show! It's not on PBS, though, so I'd never seen it. But while we were home for Christmas, my sister-in-law handed me a few videos she had in her car that their older daughter doesn't watch any more. Imagine how excited I was that one was Dora!

On the drive home, we put one of the DVDs in. There's a problem with in-car DVD players: the parents are forced to listen to whatever the kids are watching, at least until our kids are old enough to use headphones. About five minutes into the show, TK and I are giving each other looks. Ten minutes into the show, and I'm not sure I'm going to makes it. But we're in a car...there's no escape!

Here's the problem with Dora: she YELLS. Everything. Here, for example, is a transcript from one of the episodes:

Dora: HI, I'M DORA. DO YOU THINK I'M ANNOYING? [loooong pause] IF YOU THINK I'M ANNOYING, SAY "DORA'S ANNOYING!" [looooong pause] VERY GOOD!

Okay, fine, I may have paraphrased.

Needless to say, we haven't watched this video since. But I'm scared. It's nearly a month later, and the boys are still asking about it. *This* is their favorite TV show? Really?

On the plus side, B-man has started saying "Oh maaaaan" just like Swiper. It's really adorable. I guess I need a show starring Swiper, where we can say things like "When you see Dora, say 'Dora, no yelling'. Do you see Dora? Everyone say 'Dora, no yelling'".

Oh man.

Random unrelated thought: We started trying to eat local, at least on a small scale, and figured I'd post a few recipes. Had a great all-local side dish. Chopped and steamed some carrots, added some butter and a touch of maple syrup. Delightful. Okay, technically it wasn't all local since I used Land O' Lakes butter, but it could have been. I'm not about to throw out perfectly good butter, though, so I'll finish this box and then try to buy local butter.

Another great side dish for this time of year was a homemade cranberry-blueberry sauce. Cranberries from Cape Cod, frozen blueberries from Maine. Yum! Link above to the recipe on Allrecipes, where I post as Cardamum.