Rosie Goes Bilingual

Rosie has a new obsession lately. Actually – she has two new obsessions that she picked up from the other kids at Little Bricks. She is completely enamored with Dora the Explorer and Go, Diego, GO! I never deliberately introduced her to these programs, but they are on when we are at the gym. Up until a few weeks ago, I didn’t know that she even watched the programs.

My first tip-off that we had new favorites occurred in the Hallmark store on the Avenue. We were there in early February picking up all of our February birthday cards and we passed by the large collection of TY beanie babies and assorted stuffed animals. Rosie, who had not been feeling well that week, suddenly starts yelling “Mommy – a baby Jaguara! A baby Jaguara!” A What? Jaguara? What could she possibly mean?

It never occurred to me that she would be saying “Jaguar” or that she would know the difference between a jaguar stuffed animal and a tiger stuffed animal. But she did – she knew that little stuffed cat was a baby jaguar and she needed to have it. I was relatively impressed that she knew it was a jaguar, so I bought it for her.

Fast forward a few weeks – we are on the couch and she is asking for “egg-o.” What is “egg-o?” Rosie is pretty good at making herself understood, so when I didn’t understand “egg-o,” she tried something else: “Dora the ‘Splora.” That one, I understood. It just so happened that Dora was on Nickelodeon. And Diego just happened to follow it. As soon as Diego’s theme song started to play, Rosie started to jump up and down and scream “EGG-O!!! Da EGG-O!” Ah…now I get it. So, for the first time, I watch Diego. Guess what – Diego hangs out with a baby jaguar that is picture and named in the opening theme. Rosie learned about the jaguar from Diego’s theme song. He has a “baby jaguar by his side.”

Now, Rosie likes to watch multiple Dora and Diego episodes every day. They are cousins, you know. Rosie told me – but I watched the show to confirm. She has learned about many different animals (like Iggy the Iguana…she now wants an iguana). She has started to answer Dora and Diego when they ask questions of their audience – and at the end of the episode, she can tell you all about it. But all of this pales in comparison to what happened this morning.

We were watching Dora in my bed and Rosie wanted chocolate milk. I told her that we would need to go downstairs – and she looked at me and said “Let’s go, amigo. Vamanos!” I looked at her and thought, did that really just happen? So I asked her to repeat it – and she did. Thank you, Dora and Diego!