R and I got to enjoy some special one-on-one time on Monday as I took her to her first movie at the big theatre! We saw Toy Story 3 - which was really terrific! R was great - she sat through the whole thing - hardly making a peep. I was worried since she hadn't taken a nap, that she would either melt down at some point, or fall asleep. She did neither. She did sit on my lap the whole time. Those theatre seats are not meant for little 3 year olds to sit in. It basically folded back up on her and she was too low to see the screen anyway.
I think we'll be hearing stories about this one for a while now - though the only name she really remembers is Woody, she did say she liked the dinosaur one. I won't spoil the movie - but I will say it was probably one of the best choices for the little ones. There may have been scary parts, but she took it all in stride. After her first fireworks show the night before, her first movie in the theatre today, what will tomorrow bring?
Showing posts with label TV and movies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TV and movies. Show all posts
Monday, July 5, 2010
Friday, July 2, 2010
Dora the Explorer
Since we don't get any TV stations (they don't call our city Radio-Free for nothing--we've tried various rabbit-ear antennas, and even looked into getting an antenna for the top of the house only to be deterred by research we did that suggested even that antenna would not get us any stations) we watch all of our TV episodes on DVD.
Lately we've been getting DVDs from the library, which, unfortunately, are hit-and-miss because they're usually so beat up our PlayStation 2 can't always read them. Last time I went, I got our first Dora the Explorer DVD, and we let R watch her very first episodes of Dora.
She's loved Dora for a long time even though she'd never seen an episode. First Dora was her friend on her socks. Then she was her friend on her band-aids. Now she has a Dora doll she got for her birthday from one of her friends.
So she was REALLY EXCITED (this is an understatement) when she saw the cover of the DVD with Dora on it. And she was riveted during the show. Absolutely riveted. I have only seen two episodes of Dora, but they were almost identical, so I'm guessing that this is pretty much the formula for every episode:
Dora and her friends Boots (a monkey), Backpack (her backpack) and Map (a map that lives in Backpack) introduce themselves and a plot device occurs that requires them to traipse through two distinct areas in order to arrive at a final destination. Map always comes out to show them how to get to their final destination, which involves naming two places and the destination.
In one of the episodes we watched this meant having to get from Tallest Mountain to Dora's House so that Dora and her friends could learn what the super secret surprise was--and to get to Dora's House they had to go through the Jungle and across the River. So, Dora and friends sing over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again, "Jungle, River, Dora's House! Jungle, River, Dora's House! Jungle, River, Dora's House . . . " I mean, this goes on so long that I keep thinking, "they can't possibly sing that one more time . . . " and then they sing it SEVERAL more times.
Anyway. Then they have to go through these places, but not without being met by obstacles. Sometimes they need help figuring out which path to take. Other times they have to help people they meet along the way. One of the obstacles always involves having to pull stuff out of Backpack and identify the correct item needed. Throughout the episode they sing "Jungle, River, Dora's House" scads more times.
As they get through the last obstacle, they always need to enlist the help of Tico, another of Dora's friends, who only speaks Spanish. Helping Tico necessarily involves teaching the kids some Spanish words. For example, in one of the episodes they have to climb Tallest Mountain. Only, lots of watermelons grow on the side of Tallest Mountain, and as they climb, watermelons are rolling down the hill and they have to jump over them. Tico might not know to jump if someone didn't tell him to, so everyone watching is supposed to yell salta to help Tico jump over the watermelons.
In the other episode we saw Tico needs to figure out whether to take the red (rojo) path or the yellow (amarillo) path. R loved helping him, but she didn't quite understand--until we explained a few times--that Tico doesn't know English so she has to say it in Spanish. She got pretty good at yelling out rojo and amarillo after the 2nd time we watched that particular episode.
So now R has been talking a lot about Spanish. Among the conversations about Spanish that we've had in the last few days:
R: "what is pull-up in Spanish?"
S: "I don't know"
R: "You have to look it up."
She likes to make up words and insist to us that she's telling us what something means in Spanish. Last night she insisted that something she was saying that sounded kind of like "culo" was Spanish for water. I kept telling her agua is Spanish for water but she kept correcting me, insisting it's "culo."
S: "What does salta mean?"
R: "Jump over watermelons."
She's renewed her love for our little Spanish-English dictionary. She used to ask us to read it to her when she was little but that was mostly because the book is small-sized and she liked holding it. Now she knows it's a Spanish dictionary and she wants us to read her specific Spanish words.
Lately we've been getting DVDs from the library, which, unfortunately, are hit-and-miss because they're usually so beat up our PlayStation 2 can't always read them. Last time I went, I got our first Dora the Explorer DVD, and we let R watch her very first episodes of Dora.
She's loved Dora for a long time even though she'd never seen an episode. First Dora was her friend on her socks. Then she was her friend on her band-aids. Now she has a Dora doll she got for her birthday from one of her friends.
So she was REALLY EXCITED (this is an understatement) when she saw the cover of the DVD with Dora on it. And she was riveted during the show. Absolutely riveted. I have only seen two episodes of Dora, but they were almost identical, so I'm guessing that this is pretty much the formula for every episode:
Dora and her friends Boots (a monkey), Backpack (her backpack) and Map (a map that lives in Backpack) introduce themselves and a plot device occurs that requires them to traipse through two distinct areas in order to arrive at a final destination. Map always comes out to show them how to get to their final destination, which involves naming two places and the destination.
In one of the episodes we watched this meant having to get from Tallest Mountain to Dora's House so that Dora and her friends could learn what the super secret surprise was--and to get to Dora's House they had to go through the Jungle and across the River. So, Dora and friends sing over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again, "Jungle, River, Dora's House! Jungle, River, Dora's House! Jungle, River, Dora's House . . . " I mean, this goes on so long that I keep thinking, "they can't possibly sing that one more time . . . " and then they sing it SEVERAL more times.
Anyway. Then they have to go through these places, but not without being met by obstacles. Sometimes they need help figuring out which path to take. Other times they have to help people they meet along the way. One of the obstacles always involves having to pull stuff out of Backpack and identify the correct item needed. Throughout the episode they sing "Jungle, River, Dora's House" scads more times.
As they get through the last obstacle, they always need to enlist the help of Tico, another of Dora's friends, who only speaks Spanish. Helping Tico necessarily involves teaching the kids some Spanish words. For example, in one of the episodes they have to climb Tallest Mountain. Only, lots of watermelons grow on the side of Tallest Mountain, and as they climb, watermelons are rolling down the hill and they have to jump over them. Tico might not know to jump if someone didn't tell him to, so everyone watching is supposed to yell salta to help Tico jump over the watermelons.
In the other episode we saw Tico needs to figure out whether to take the red (rojo) path or the yellow (amarillo) path. R loved helping him, but she didn't quite understand--until we explained a few times--that Tico doesn't know English so she has to say it in Spanish. She got pretty good at yelling out rojo and amarillo after the 2nd time we watched that particular episode.
So now R has been talking a lot about Spanish. Among the conversations about Spanish that we've had in the last few days:
R: "what is pull-up in Spanish?"
S: "I don't know"
R: "You have to look it up."
She likes to make up words and insist to us that she's telling us what something means in Spanish. Last night she insisted that something she was saying that sounded kind of like "culo" was Spanish for water. I kept telling her agua is Spanish for water but she kept correcting me, insisting it's "culo."
S: "What does salta mean?"
R: "Jump over watermelons."
She's renewed her love for our little Spanish-English dictionary. She used to ask us to read it to her when she was little but that was mostly because the book is small-sized and she liked holding it. Now she knows it's a Spanish dictionary and she wants us to read her specific Spanish words.
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