It's official. I hate Dora.

I've never loved Dora. But I could understand the appeal, and was fine with my daughters, each in turn, having a mild obsession with her or her cousin, Diego. It's all part of being a kid, right, falling in love with a character? Who hasn't done that? And all was fine in our home, with this mild obsession.

But, with my ickiness lately, I have resorted to allowing far too much tv, all for the sake of my sanity. This coincides, unfortunately, with the decision we made that we do not need cable any more. So, when we are tired of the offerings of pbs, in pops a dvd. Dora "Super Babies" is the dvd of choice this week. Lauren can watch it over and over, and lucky for her, it runs in a loop, so if you aren't quick enough in hitting "stop" and "eject" and hiding the dvd, it starts all over again.

And, in all seriousness, I can handle that. It's okay. I always control the volume, so I can make it so that I barely hear it while I'm trying to rest. But, the fact that this dvd has been playing in a seemingly constant loop for a week only became a serious problem when Lauren's gift from my brother-in-law arrived.

He sent her a gift card to Target. Super cool, that part of the gift I loved. :-) The accompanying card, though, well, it's Dora. And she sings. "Happy birthday to you, happy birthday, happy birthday, happy birthday to you! Cumpleanos feliz, somethingIcan'tunderstand a ti, cumpleanos, cumpleanos, cumpleanos feliz!" Like all musical cards I've seen, the sound quality is poor. And the volume tries to make up for it by being really REALLY loud. Loud, poor quality sound combined with Dora's animated voice = I'm trying to think of revenge on my single, childless bro-in-law (suggestions are always welcome).

Wouldn't you know it, that dang card is her favorite toy right now. My only saving grace is Lauren is afraid Aubrey might want to play with it, so she asks me to keep it up high for her. It comes down several times a day, with strict instructions to play it in a room mom is not in. (which doesn't mean I don't hear it, of course, just that it's kinda muffled by a wall or two) And then it rest on top of the fridge for hopefully a few hours.

So there you have it. I now officially hate Dora. Her voice is like nails on a chalk board to my ears. I want to vomit. And that's not first trimester nausea talking.