"A message, a message, a very important message ..."

There has a been a change in our household over the last few months. Dora and Blue are still dearly loved, and Dora is still much in demand for clothing, toys and bedding. But there is a new gang on the block, and they're beating out Dora and Blue pretty easily.

The Backyardigans is this, in my opinion, odd little show about a group of kids who have amazing imaginary adventures. They sing, they dance, the whole thing is as carefully choreographed as a Broadway musical. The preschooler loves it though. She's seen every episode a dozen times at least and still gets excited when it's time for the show to start.

At the same time as the preschooler has falled in love with the "backyards," as she calls them, she has entered the imaginary friend stage. Which means she now has not just one, but five imaginary friends, which makes snack time a little complicated. Not to mention car rides. We just don't have that many free seatbelts. Trust her to do this in her own unique way.

(By the way, what's with the opossum that shows up between Nick Jr. shows? I have news for them. 'Possums aren't golden and they don't have cute little fuzzballs on the ends of their tails. They are nasty, mean, filthy scavengers, with naked tails and way too many teeth. This is a good picture of an opossum. So is this. Note that neither looks anything like this little orange guy.)