Do-do-do-do....Dora?

Okay, so I remember in my 'pre-kids' days and what an idiot I was. I remember going to lunch and listening to my friends (who had kids) discussing all the different 'kid shows' or singing theme songs to cartoons and thinking to myself that would never be me. I would never allow myself to get to a point where the majority of conversations during my day would revolve around 'kid stuff'. Well, here I am a few years later and I want to know... WHAT THE *&*% HAPPENED TO DORA!!

Today, the new and apparently 'improved' Dora was unveiled on the news, yes, the news! She is supposed to be a 'tween' now, around ten-years-old. Now I will agree, she is pretty cute and obviously not going through the 'awkward' phase, that most tweens do, but WHY?!! Mickey mouse never aged, Sleeping Beauty never aged, so what is the purpose behind this new Dora who looks nothing like an "Explorer". No backpack, no map, no clothes conducive to doing all the cool stuff that the Dora we have come to know and love does! Now she looks more like one of the 'Bratz' dolls that look like little divas and are the antithesis of what we want our little girls to grow up to be.

Ok. I am done, just needed to vent about this major travesty and now I am off to do more 'adult', and less juvenile things... like write my complaint letter to Nickelodeon !!!
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NEEDED: Vacation from the Vacation

Well we have officially been home a full week from our week-long vacation to Palm Springs with the Osborn clan and I have only one bag (out of about eight) left to unpack. Unfortunately it was one that was left way too long... the culprit; one wet swimsuit that I forgot had been 'thrown' in (a 'Bryan' packed bag), and the smell of mildew was enough for me to throw it directly in the garbage. Yes, the meaning of the word vacation completely changes when you decide to take kids... in fact it shouldn't even be called a vacation, it needs its own name. Maybe something like, "departure from home for extended period of time to a different, more scenic place, to do the same things like wipe bums and care for screaming babies, as you would do at home, only with a much happier disposition." A little lengthy, but much more appropriate.

So yes, I am now ready for a real vacation. You know, the kind where you actually get to sit and read at least three chapters in a row from the book you brought, the kind where you go out to nice dinners with your hubby with whom you fall in love with all over again and you remind him as well of the 'funny, laid back, cool girl' he married and not the over-stressed, naggy, scrunchy-wearing (Ok that's a little overboard) **tch he comes home to now. I will say one thing... when I get this 'vacation' I promise to relish every moment of it as if it were the last!!

Now just because this wasn't the most relaaaxing trip, we did have a wonderful time and couldn't have been with a better group of peeps. I happen to be incredibly lucky to have the coolest in-laws around. My two sister-in-laws are some of my best friends and my adorable nieces and nephews are Camryn's 'very best friends' as she calls them. The weather was unbeatable, the pool time watching Camryn was unforgettable, and the day at Disneyland (minus the Sleeping Beauty Castle experience that scared the pee, literally, out of our already highly anxious three-year -old) was fabulous!!