Role Play Riots

Recently, Daniel has been role playing a lot - constantly pretending to someone else. Sometimes it's a person, but usually it's an animal - an animal in distress. He is always calling out for help, saying that he's falling and needs to be caught, or telling us how hungry he is.

At first we thought it was some disguised cry for attention or help, but then we realized: He's just watching too much Dora & Diego. Every episode of Diego centers around helping an animal undergoing some kind of duress.

And then we noticed exactly how much of his playtime is influenced by those two shows... a lot! Just a few examples...

- When we're driving through town, he narrates it by "paths" from the Dora episode with bugs and spiders. "Which paf should we take? The lellow path or the blue path? Watch out - that one has MEAN ANTS on it! Run!"

- He likes to be "baby jaguar" and alternately makes me and Fernando be Diego. (The other one has to be Alicia, Diego's sister, so that gets interesting when I have to be Diego.) Baby Jaguar likes to hide behind the trees in our yard and growl until we notice he's hiding... see top photo.

- Probably a dozen times a day, we have to "Play Swiper". And there is a strict script involved in the game - he will correct you if you say your lines wrong. ("Oh no... that sounds like Swiper the fox! That sneaky fox is always trying to swipe my stuff. I hope he doesn't swipe my (insert item). Swiper, no swiping! Swiper, no swi..." "A ha!! You'll never get your (insert item) now!") Usually he swipes something pretty important, like my hair or my pants. And 95% of the time they are "stuck in the rainbow" and we have to go on a lengthy adventure to get them back.

- Daniel LOVES to make maps. He and I sit together and draw three step maps that make him run all over the backyard, do somersaults and twist in the swing. And occasionally sing and dance like a monkey.

You get the idea. Dora & Diego have become household names, but it's not entirely a bad thing. Daniel is an expert on a handful of animals (Daniel: "What animal eats jellyfish, Mommy?" Me: "Turtles!" Daniel: "No Mommy, Leatherback Sea Turtles!") and loves helping us solve problems (usually by saying "Let's stop and think!" and pulling something out of his imaginary backpack).

Let the games continue!