I’ve talked previously about how much my son loves Dora the Explorer.? He’s now just over 2 1/2 and, although he still watches Dora regularly, Diego definitely takes precedence over Dora.? It must be the ‘boy’ thing and the idea of adventure, all while learning about different animals.? Diego is now the first TV show of choice when we have a morning at home.? I’ve found that I enjoy watching it as well and learn some things that I didn’t know.? I just wish they had more Diego shows available – it seems like the ones on Noggin are somewhat limited so have bought what DVDs are available.? Of course, my son doesn’t ever care if they are repeats!? It’s a winner with him!

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Ok, we are not sure if we like this idea or not. The thought of sitting a baby in front of a TV just scares the crap out of us. Yet, we all know whether it’s Teletubbies, Baby Einstein, or the latest on PBS…your baby as well as ours will likely be watching some TV. We just hope, that parents truly get it…you use the programs to interact with your child and not to baby sit your child.

The new, round-the-clock channel is called BabyFirstTV. For $9.99 a month, it will be available initially by satellite through DirecTV and later through cable TV providers as well.

TV offerings already abound for older toddlers, and a lucrative ? though controversial ? market has developed for baby-oriented videos, attracting the Walt Disney Co. and the makers of Sesame Street, among others. But until now there had been no ongoing TV programming aimed at infants.

“This is the first channel dedicated to babies and their parents ? transforming TV from its original purpose into a way for them to interact,” said Sharon Rechter, BabyFirstTV’s executive vice president for business development and marketing.

“The fact of life is that babies are already watching TV,” she said. “That’s why having BabyFirstTV is so important ? what we want to offer is completely safe, commercial-free and appropriate content.” KDKA.com.

With my wife still away on travel for work, my two-and-a-half year old son and I continue to turn our house into the bachelor pad we’ve always wanted. For our Friday movie night we decided to turn it up a notch. Pow! While the wife likes the cute and cuddly shows and fuzzy cute cats..we’re men and we sometimes need to watch shows that only men watch. So what did we watch? A movie about dogs. Not cute cuddly dogs either! No we watch on DVD a story about a BIG RED DOG!

Yep, that right. We watched Clifford’s Really Big Movie. Why is Clifford a real man’s dog? Well while he may like his family, and he may like his friends…there is only one thing that he really needs to make him happy. As long as he has a nice big bowl of Tummy Yummies he’s perfectly happy. Ahhh…finally a movie the boy and I can really get into!

Every Holloween our Zoo?invites children to dress up for Holloween?in?their annual Zoo Boo.? Our then?two year-old son was dressed?as his favorite character, Boots from Dora the Explorer. However, a large number of children were wearing constumes that I didn’t recognize.? With bulging fake muscles and the letter “i” on the front of the costume I pretty much figured the kids were dressed as?super heroes, but I?could not identify the show.? You see my experience?with children shows?was?for the under two-year old crowd and I was just glad that my son didn’t dress up as a teletubbie!? Finally,?another?parent?was able to help me out and say that the?kids were dressed like the?Heroes from?The Incredibles.

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?Well in the world of toddlers, six months can make a difference!? For our?family?”movie night” last Friday we purchased the Incredibles on DVD (in widescreen may I add).? The?kid?held interest through the whole movie, the humor kept Dad tuned in, and the?near G-Rated cartoon violence kept Mom at peace.? All and all, it was an incredible Friday night!

Dora the Explorer ? my son is absolutely enthralled with her! This is his show of choice when he gets to watch TV. It is a very good show ? teaches a number of things to include Spanish! He could count to 10 in Spanish before he could count to 10 in English and that was right around is 2^nd birthday. A very good educational show as well as a main character that I think my son has a crush on (plus he loves Boots the monkey as well)!

A couple years ago when I heard that they would be doing a remake of Battlestar Galactica, the late 1970’s television series, I didn’t want to get my hopes up to high. As a kid, I treasured that series and I just didn’t want a good show to be ruined by a remake. Then the rumors began to fly. Two of my favorite male characters in the series, Boomer and Star Buck, were now female characters. The look of the Cylons was being changed with a number of them looking like humans not machine. In fact Boomer was no longer human…but one very confused Cylon. On and on these rumors came and went. To make it all worse…the rumors were true! They called this Battlestar Galactica reimagined. How could I enjoy watching this remake trash everything I knew about the original series?

Reimagining the series evidently was the best thing to happen to a television science fiction series in a long time. The show is not only a darker version of the original, but probably a series that better reflects the reality and complications humanity has faced and will always face. You put a group of survivors together and after a short time complications will develop. The reimagined show has made sure the story told has “grown-up” just as much as the series original fans have.

The new Battlestar Galactica is not only better than the original series, it is in my opinion the best science fiction series currently on television. Evidently, I’m not alone as the series has won several awards including a Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation and rated the number one show in 2005 in Time’s Best of 2005 for Television. If you have already missed the first season and a half I recommend checking out the series on DVD (clicking on pics above will take you to Amazon).