What We've Been Reduced To

I read an article a couple of months ago that had a lot of good tips for getting toddlers to do what you want them to do. Darcy gets so caught up in what she's thinking about that she couldn't care less about what we're asking her to do.

One suggestion was to make a game of things. If you want her to go to the bathroom and she wants to keep playing, then get her to bounce like a kangaroo to the bathroom, so she thinks she's still playing, so she'll go along with you. It's worked pretty well for me.

Well, our lives right now are all about Dora the Explorer. Darcy loves Dora. She got two new DVD's for Christmas and she'd spend all day watching them if we let her. If you're lucky enough to have never seen an episode, I'll summarize for you. This little girl goes on adventures all around the world with her friend Boots. He's a monkey. Dora has a map that leads her through all these adventures and he always gives her three places she needs to go to reach her goal. These three places are drummed into kids at the beginning of each episode. "Bridge, tunnel, snowy mountain. Bridge, tunnel, snowy mountain. Bridge, tunnel, snowy mountain."

We've discovered that Darcy responds well to this three-step approach to life, so our lives have become a series of the next three steps we have to follow (Pee pee, bath, time for bed. Pee pee, bath, time for bed). I can't believe we're operating on Dora's terms!

On a complete different note, I bought some fresh fruit this morning at the grocery store to take to work. It had a dipping sauce in the middle which said "Yogurt dip". I was expecting strawberry yogurt. But when I opened it I found chocolate. I don't know whose idea that was, but they're a genius.