Interrupting dinner preparations to run in every minute and a half to rewind, fast forward, or skip scenes in my toddler niece’s videos was wearing on my sister’s nerves—since we always talk around that time, it was beginning to grate on mine as well. So when we reached the end of a conversation recently without anything but giggles and squeals of glee emitting from my niece
in the background, I was astounded. Turned out my sister received an early holiday gift from her mother-in-law—the vdoBug DVD navigator. It’s a television remote that allows very small children to play, replay, and skip between scenes on a DVD “just like Mommy and Daddy!” And it’s shaped like a ladybug—toddler score! Little Mia was so excited and proud to be flipping to all of her favorite scenes and replaying them over and over! Not only does she enjoy watching all five of the enchanting movies that arrive with the vdoBug, she gets to experience the repetition that is so important to toddlers in their learning and development, and she has developed a sense of mastery over her environment that has been a huge boost to her self-esteem and her initiative to learn. This, as any mother of a toddler can tell you, is a cherished developmental milestone as well as the beginning of a whole new level of vigilance required from parents—get ready to rumble, little sister, because that baby thinks she can do it all and is raring to prove it!
