The Negotiator

Apparently while in the womb, not only do they teach our children the different ways to resist sleep but also how to use the art of negotiation to avoid doing whatever is requested. This includes eating, sleeping, taking a bath, brushing her teeth, pick up toys, stop playing, leaving the playground. In other words, for everything. And she'll also use the same scrip Dora uses.

"Pumpkin, it's time for bed"
"FIRST, I will read. THEN, I'll make some coffee. THEN you'll sing to me. THEN, I'LL REALLY PISS YOU OFF. THEN, I'll go to bed (aka. I'll start crying as soon as you lay down)"

We try explaining, bribing, sweet tones, irritated tones. If nothing else works, she cries. I cry. And no one gets a good night's sleep. Or, we'll let her sleep in our bed just to avoid the previous sentence. Which means she wins. In either case she wins since we (her parents) won't be able to sleep.

She is a damn good negotiator.

Potty training Chart

I don't even remember when I started to potty train Pumpkin, but we've done it in a very relaxed way. About 10 weeks ago I printed a potty training chart and I cut and paste a "sticker" on her chart whenever she goes and pees. Well, yesterday she completed the chart. 35 times! Wow! We've been trying to get her all excited and told her that when she filled the chart we would take her to pick a toy.



Yesterday she was only 2 stickers away from a complete chart. Obviously we were saying: "Only 2 more times, 2 more! And we'll take you tonight to pick a toy!". Finally at about 6pm she completed the chart. We danced, screamed, hi-5'ed, the works... then we got ready and headed for Toys R Us. She even took her chart with her, which I thought was a very good idea. That way we could remind her why we were there.

We asked for the Dora the Explorer section. If you've read my past posts you might now she is obsessed with Dora. It turns out they had a total of 5 toys, 4 of which were the furniture for the Big 'Ol Dora House, which we don't have. We continued looking for things she liked. Got to the book section, she looked at several then put them down again. Pumpkin does have a lot of books, probably more than 20. I guess she might become a bookworm just like her mommy? Actually JA is very happy about that because he barely reads. So anyway, she saw a Dora coloring book, one of those that have watercolors and she got that one. We kept looking through the aisles and got to the Little Tykes section, she has several of them. We let her make the decision, which one do you want Pumpkin? The airplane? The book? Or the car with the camper and tables and dolls? And isn't she a smart girl... This is what she picked and hurried us to pay:



Maybe she knows about the economy? She definitely surprised used with her choice. $7.99 beats $24.99 any day.

Halloween 2008

This was our first Halloween. And by our I mean Pumpkin and I. For religious reasons we didn't celebrate Halloween or Santa Clause. JA wanted to take Pumpkin out and I decided the best thing was to dress her up as Dora. In other words, not spend a dime on a costume since after all I know she will not wear it. She refuses to wear anything that doesn't look or feel like regular clothes. So after our Backpack mission Super Dad use his engineering skills to make the damn thing wearable. He drilled holes, use screws and cut part of the top part. But in the end? A working Backpack!



To her she was just having a regular day but had a new toy. Since we're new in the neighborhood I had no idea if they did something or not. I asked a neighbor and she said that kids should be passing by at any moment. Next thing we know 3 kids with their parents stop by and we figured the best thing to do was tag along. And that we did! Pumpkin didn't know what was happening, but at the 4th house she just walked up and opened her bag. It got pretty heavy but she refused to let us help her.



It was a very fun night and I am glad that I get the opportunity to experience it with my daughter. Can't wait for next year, when she'll probably say what she wants her costume to be and I won't get to be as cheap creative as this year.

Cops and Robbers

Thursday was a long day. A very productive one, but still, long. Among the things on my to do list was find Backpack. As in THE Backpack that Dora the Explorer uses. I was really looking for any purple backpack but found nothing. Went to 3 stores and in 2 of them saw a Backpack toy. It opens, it includes a map, telescope and other things, PLUS it talks! How cool is that?

Dear Fisher-Price people:
I am a mom of a 2 year old who loves to play with anything that has buttons and sounds. And if the toy has to do with Dora, then it will surely be a success. Here's my question: WHY would you sell a toy, a Backpack to be precise, that does not have straps? Isn't the point of having a backpack to wear it? Hey, I could be wrong, but somehow I really doubt that's the case. This is pretty much like Christmas toys without batteries, Halloween without candies, New Year's without sex and a wedding without drinking.

So we went to 4 stores before finally deciding to buy the talking backpack that does not have straps. I really wasn't in the mood for cooking so we stopped at Wendy's for our meal. There was this kid, maybe 7 years, in the table behind us.

Why do robbers use knives?
Why do they stay at hotels?
How do they enter a house?
What if a cops sees him?

We just looked at each other without saying anything. First, where did he learn/saw this? And second, why didn't the father answer him anything? I'm not at that stage yet, but still, isn't part of our jobs as parents to supervise what our children see on TV, and to explain whatever questions our kids have regarding what they see or are told?

My name is Pumpkin and I'm addicted to Dora

Is it possible for a kid, a 2 year old, to be addicted to a cartoon? Pumpkin absolutely adores Dora the Explorer. She loves it as much as she loves milk, and let me tell you, I am considering buying a cow. It would be cheaper to have a cow in my backyard! But then again, it's easier to take the dry/powdered kind on the road.
So Dora is very educational. In our case, she teaches Pumpkin words in English since our first language is Spanish. Sorry if I write something wrong, just let me know ;)
Having Dora available in our TiVo can be a godsend whenever I need to get some celebrity gossip work done in the computer... and read emails, and check my CrackBook Facebook , and the weather.
She can watch them over and over happily. She learned to count to 10 in both English and Spanish. Whenever she eats or drinks something that she likes she'll say delicioso. What a compliment! Makes me feel like a great cook.
It is so sweet and adorable listening to her sing the songs and dancing. Not so adorable: me doing laundry while singing her songs. I am definitely a mom!