Our little Dora moved to the city, grew long hair, replaced her furry friends for new Explorer Girls BFFs and now wears a hot pink dress and bedazzling jewelry.  Ay, our niña is all grown up.  Next, she´ll be wanting a Quinceañera!

The much discussed arrival of Mattel´s new Dora the Explorer franchise aimed at girls ages 5-8 is finally here after some eight months of waiting and guessing what kind of girl Dora would grow up to be.

Well, from the press release I received yesterday (haven´t played with the real thing yet)  announcing the arrival of Dora Links as part of the new Explorer Girls line, I can tell you she´s pretty trendy, techie, green and still very bilingual.

Your tween will get a new group of interactive friends who live in an imaginary Puerte Verde which, by the way, is full of Latino neighbors.  The Dora doll connects interactively to this city via USB to your computer.  Once you set up a private account for you child on DoraLinks she can start going on her own adventures with the Explorer Girls.

What has amazed me the most about this whole new interactive doll concept is the way your child can make changes to Dora on-screen and then see them happening to the actual doll.  So, let´s say she changes the color of her eyes to blue on the site, then look at the Dora doll and her eyes will now be blue.  You can even make her hair shorter!  How cool is that?

Dora Links retails at $59.99 and is now available at  major retail and online stores.  Of course, your best bet is to get it through La Tiendita and pay only $50.46!

{We´re working hard to get a Dora Links doll to give away to a lucky reader, so make sure you’re subscribed to the SBFinds feed via email or RSS so that you can be notified when it happens.}

Secret Phrase: "One of the greatest feats of human development is the acquisition of language. "

My girl’s favorite phrase lately (said in a very dictator-like tone) is “¡A bailar!”  She manages to get us all dancing on cue and on the spot.  So you can imagine her bliss when she opened the huge Fisher Price box to discover her sorpresa:  a brand new Dance With Me Dora!  Her glee turned into euphoria as soon as she pressed the crystal on Dora’s necklace and the first words out of the doll’s mouth were “¡Vamos a bailar!”

What happened next was that Dora magically and interactively led us into an improvised dance party in our kitchen.  We danced to the música que trae por dentro, literally, and tried our best to follow her choreographed dance moves and bilingual leads.  She spins, she walks on her tippy toes, she guides you in Spanish and English, she lifts her arms up to the sky.  My daughter does too.  I did (had) to, as well.  What’s a mom to do?

After the fiesta in the kitchen, we decided to pamper Dora by brushing her hair, putting on her barette and admiring her new dress.  She’s sporting the threads she wears in “Dora Saves the Crystal Kingdom”, her new TV film to be released later this month and the inspiration for this glittering, twirling musical doll.

I would, however, warn you from letting her dance on the table.  My girl’s now decided she likes to watch her dance and caer to the wooden floors.  Not sure how long that can last.

Find Dance with me Dora via La Tiendita, powered by Amazon.

A Giveaway!!

This giveaway is now closed.  Congrtulations to our winner:  Beth Shepherd!!!

We’re giving away one Dance With Me Dora (Retail value of $59.99) to a lucky winner!  For a chance to win it tell us who the doll is for and why she/he would love it.

That’s all you have to do to enter this giveaway.  If you want to up your chances at winning, then click here to learn how to get additional entries.

This giveaway ends Friday, September 18th, at midnight EST.

For the part that nobody likes, but we’ve gotta have, check out the Giveaway Rules.

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Secret Phrase: "One of the greatest feats of human development is the acquisition of language. "