one should always carry a bit of pepper

tonight ellen and i watched her new dora movie in which one the characters accidently gets swallowed by a whale. dora, who can fix any problem, doesn't worry - she just pulls a bit of pepper from her backpack and gives some to the friendly whale to help him sneeze her friend back into their boat. (i should preface this by mentioning that ellen loooooves dora, diego, swiper, boots, everyone and everything about these movies. when we watch them she keeps stealing glances at me, flashing this huge delighted grin, does a little happy dance while sitting in her chair before looking back to the movie) now. i'm not quite sure what the writers of children's movies are thinking...some of the story lines are a little freaky. that one's actually pretty tame - disney movies tend to be the freakiest. the first time ellen saw this it didn't faze her. but tonight it kinda freaked her out and she came to sit on my lap. and then when i put her to bed, and i said it was time for me to go so she could sleep, she started crying and saying i was going to get swallowed by the whale. it took me several tries to understand what she was talking about, but eventually i got it and promised i would not be swallowed by a whale. at this ellen burst into tears and said "i really worry about you!" (awww, what a sweetie!) we talked about it for a bit and remembered being swallowed by a whale wasn't a big deal, we would just need to help him sneeze and then everything would be fine and so she went to bed without having to worry about my safety. i think some one out there should make a kids movie that does not involve major drama. i think minor drama would be quite sufficient to hold a two year old's interest.