So I got a little crafty and decided to make some replicas of "Map" from Dora the Explorer for party favors for Avery's 2nd birthday.

How did this little cutie go from lil potbelly hanging out with ruffle socks to sassy tween flirty Dora??

This new Dora will be 10 years old and instead of having wild adventures will be exploring school. Matel says she will still be wholesome. “For nearly ten years, Dora the Explorer has had such a strong following among preschoolers, catapulting it into the number one preschool show on commercial television,” says Gina Sirard, vice president of marketing for Mattel in a press release. “Girls really identify with Dora and we knew that girls would love to have their friend Dora grow up with them, and experience the new things that they were going through themselves. The brand captures girls’ existing love of Dora and marries it with the fashion doll play and online experiences older girls enjoy.”

I think it will probably be a good idea for the older kids who have grown too old to sit through Dora and Boots warding off Swiper, but am hoping, along with lots of mom friends that they keep the old Dora episodes running too.

What are your thoughts??

In case you didn't know our daughter Avery is in love with Diego. In fact, one of my good friends says she'll probably marry a Hispanic man because she loves Diego so much. Consequently, Avery is starting to like Dora (Diego's cousin,) as well.

I can tell she's obsessed when the first thing out of her mouth after she wakes up in the morning or after nap is, "Diego." All day long she asks to watch Dora and Diego, in fact she asks so much that I have to tell her that they are napping so we can get a break from the Double Ds.

I don't mind her watching Diego mostly because it's very educational with teaching her Spanish words, and helps her learn about different animals. Who knows what a lama says? Well, Avery of course. She's now gotten into singing parts of the theme song, it's too cute.

As for Dora, it's not the worst thing she could ever watch on TV and it's still teaching her some of the Spanish language. However it has a lot of fantasy, trolls, spells, witches, and not as educational if you ask me.

So anyway, the point of my post is that since Avery is so in love with these characters I found a couple on one of my mommy sites. I saw pictures of them online but had no clue what they would be like in person. When I brought them home I knew Avery would totally flip, in a good way. These dolls (if you will,) are almost the size of Avery.

I put them in her favorite pink chair and when she came downstairs for the morning she was confused but then had a ball. She was putting them in her chairs, stroller, cars for a ride. And then she made them dance and put them on the steps with her. She even had to have them in the car with her too.Needless to say she has had so much fun with them and still adores playing with them just not every single second of the day.