Anybody Up for a Game of Where's Dora?

I have some new thoughts on this Dora thing:

1. It's my fault. I am 100% responsible for the word "Dora" entering Alexis' vocabulary. I realized it when we were out at a restaurant yesterday. For as long as Alexis' has had the disposable Dora placemats, I have used them to keep her busy while we wait for food when we are out. She points to something on the placemat and says "What's that?" and I answer her. Or I point and she tells me. She knows the signs for ball, monkey, flower, and frog because of that. And she knows the words ball, flower, and Dora because of it, too.

2. Dora lost her extra "d" this weekend. Her name is now perfectly pronounced as "Dora!" (The exclamation point at the end is very important.)

3. Dora is flippin' EVERYWHERE. We now know that because Alexis points her out EVERYWHERE. Everytime I think she's just imagining things, another weird Dora item shows up. Here's some examples:

* Sears--there's a bin of Dora videos by the checkout.
* Michaels'--Dora is all over some foam stickers near the party supplies.
* Giant Eagle (grocery store)--are you ready for this--Dora is in at least EIGHT aisles. Ice cream. Cookies. Animal crackers. Fruit snacks. Yogurt. Metal trays. Sippy cups. Napkins. Books. And that's just the aisles where I figured out what Alexis was pointing at. Dora's face is on more products than George Washington is on dollar bills.
* Target--it's Giant Eagle times a thousand. There's a whole aisle of Dora toys and that's in addition to her presence on clothing, sporting goods, accessories, bubble bath, band-aids, books, videos, etc., etc., etc.
* I could go on, and on, and on, and on. Trust me, there is nowhere that you can go that will be 100% Dora free.

A Weekend at the Playground

These pictures pretty much sum up Alexis' Memorial Day weekend so far. There's been a lot of sliding, and a whole lot of swinging. She would have it no other way.

She May Have Won the Battle

Just in case you thought it was easy to remove pacifiers from our lives, let me just tell you a little story from earlier this evening. I found yet another pacifier hiding in Alexis' room, this time under the chair. I tossed it in a basket on her dresser with the thought that I would throw it away later. But not so fast, Alexis saw this little event transpire. And Miss Thang decided she was getting that pacifier. She threw the mightiest of fits as she tried to climb the dresser and continued said fit for over half an hour as I tried to get her to go to bed. She reached a point where she was so tired, I don't even think she knew what she was mad about. She just knew she wasn't giving in. So I did. I fully confess, Miss Alexis took a pacifier with her to bed. But I have won the war. I took the paci from her the second she was asleep and threw the little bugger away. For the record, she does fall asleep a lot faster when she has a pacifier. Too bad we think she's too old for them.

Alexis picked out a dancing frog for Daddy for Valentine's Day. Because she is of the female persuasion, she picked something out that she actually wanted for herself. It worked perfectly; the frog might technically belong to Daddy, but she's the one that plays with it all of the time. (Kind of like the Steelers sweatshirt I once bought for him, but that he's never worn because I always have it.) The quality of the video isn't fabulous, but you'll get to see what Alexis does every single time someone pushes the frog's buttons.

If you can't play the embedded version of the video, try this link. Oh, and the part where she stops dancing to hold the frog's hand--yeah, she knows exactly what she's doing and she is doing it because she knows he's about to say "hold my hand."