Need a little cheat sheet?? After watching the Backyardigans show on Noggin a few times, you’ll have it down pat. In the meantime, here’s a great little photo guide from Nick Jr:

Nick Jr. also has a bunch of fun Backyardigans items on their site, such as this Backyardigans print and fold holiday ornament.

Lil’ Duck has moved from his previous favorites, Clifford & The Backyardigans, to Dora and the Wonder Pets. Of particular amusement to us adults in the house was the episode where they help the puppy who has to go “pee-pee”, resulting in Lil’ Duck running around the house, plopping onto his potty chair and screaming “puppy, pee-pee”…. oh dear. As a mommy, I appreciate the message of “teamwork” and helping others out - Lil’ Duck loves all the animals, basically. The voices get a little annoying to adults, but as toddler shows go, it’s worth checking out if you haven’t already.

Here’s a list of the favorite foods of the almost-two-year-old friends of Lil’ Duck Duck, perhaps it will give you some new ideas or just make you laugh at the odd collection of favorites. Lil’ Duck prefers anything that you are eating, anything he isn’t supposed to have, or anything unhealthy. He does LOVE smoothies though!

• Chicken & broccoli
• Yogurt
• Blueberries, strawberries, mandarin oranges, grapes
• Cheese crackers
• Green beans, corn, edamame
• Anything with sauce, spaghetti & meatballs
• Peas
• Peanut butter and jelly on wheat
• Popsicles
• Grilled cheese dipped in ketchup
• Cottage cheese
• Cheese
• Vanilla ice cream
• Chocolate, M&Ms
• Pancakes
• Couscous
• Popcorn
• Mashed potatoes
• Pizza!

The baby will not leave our remotes alone, not only does he have to use them to turn things on and go channel surfing, but he also has to pop the backs off and take the batteries out of them. Aside from being incredibly annoying, it also quickly became dangerous when he took one halfway out and it overheated and started leaking acid, fun fun. Anyway, he peels off regular tape and we didn’t want duct tape ruining the cable company’s remote, but we found the perfect solution. Gaffer tape. It’s also black, so it blends in nicely with the rest of the remote. He hasn’t gotten to any batteries since (and boy is he mad about it too, hee hee hee).

“he’s watched about 3 hours of selected videos a week and almost never on the weekend. It works for us, even though we suffer some twinges of parenting guilt.”

Guilt? Honestly, to have a few moments to actually clean up one of the endless disasters, to find a bite to eat, or anything else that gives me a bit of sanity - that isn’t guilt-inducing, that’s just survival. I highly doubt that a few TV/video shows a week is going to cause lifelong damage to a [tag]child[/tag].

Sure, some people abuse TV as a babysitting/parenting tool, but if used correctly it can be a lifesaver.