Exotic yet ordinary

My daughter watches television. Quite a lot. At least more than the pediatrician recommended viewing limit for her age group, which is, um, zero. But that increases to two whole hours once she's two. And, you know, she has been slightly ahead of the curve on other things, why not her television consumption?

All along the intention had been to severly limit the TV she watched. My husband was pushing for none at all, but I was holding out for at least some children's programming. What would a little Sesame Street or Teletubbies in the morning hurt? So, a little television it was, so long as we stuck to the educational shows. Turns out, Sesame Street is a gateway drug. Soon, that hour of Sesame Street turned into a half-hour of Doodlebops and a half-hour of Sesame Street, followed by a mixture of PBS (Jakers! Thomas the Tank Engine!) and Disney (Doodlebops! Charlie & Lola! Rolie Polie Olie!) programming. And then we discovered NOGGIN. It's like Preschool. On TV. A preschool with Bruno, Oobie, Maisy, Miss Spider, Laurie Berkner, and most importantly, DORA for your classmates. After that, there was no turning back. What started as an innocent hour of fun with the Sesame Street gang had developed into a several hour per day Dora habit (THANKS Nick, Jr - ya wee bastids). She loves her some Dora... at least two or three times a day.

I justify all this by telling myself and anyone else who will listen that it's okay because it's e d u c a t i o n a l. And, hey, Noggin is devoted to my pre-preschooler. Aaaand, it gives me a smallish break so that I can be the best (read as sane and slightly more rested) mommy I can be. Oh, and did I mention it was educational? (can you feel the guilt?)

Anyway, time passes and I'm beginning to have my doubts that the Sesame Street gang and Noggin were so beneficial after all. And just when I was starting to give up and initiate the painful process of television detox, Maya busts out some Spanish while we're playing in the hallway one afternoon. It was her turn to roll her ball back to her Dad. As I handed it to her, she hugged it and said yah-yas! Later, she said it again, yah-yas! followed by a tiny thank you! and a kiss. Gracias is now part of her vocabulary! And she uses it correctly! Holy heck! So, turns out Dora is an okay influence after all. Maya may not say a lot of two-word sentences (yet), but by golly she speaks Spanish. Er, un poco. Take THAT pediatricians!