Dance parties, ducks and Michael Jackson

I took Nayáhuari to a dance party this weekend. Not a post-church mariachi, sonidero and packs of kids running between the tablecloths kind of party, but a good old urban house party with 1 child (mine), 90 adults, chips, alcohol, and a DJ in the living room. Considering that my toddler’s bedtime is midnight anyway, she fared rather well, athough she was more interested in the snacks and less enthused by the unfamiliar 80’s and 90’s hip-hop/R&B soundtrack that had the crowd of thirty-somethings strutting all over the dance floor.

Not surprisingly, Nayáhuari has also shown indifference to my favorite Pocoyó episode. Now for all you out there with pequeñitas y pequeñitos, if you haven’t already found Pocoyó, you should check him out. He’s a little blue cartoon character who—along with the help of a pink elephant (surely a nod to Dumbo’s drunken dream), a duck, a blue bird, and a neurotically happy yellow worm—helps small children explore real-life challenges, such as saying good-bye to someone you love and fessing up when you’ve broken someone else’s toy. Each episode comes with it’s life lesson, but in an effort to reach out to the parent set, they are also just plain funny.

Here is one of my favorite Pocoyó episodes, with Pato and Pocoyó battling on the dance floor, and Ely, the pink elephant, as DJ.



Pato’s performance of Michael Jackson and Pocoyó’s arena rock number (with an octopus on his head!) has me clicking the replay icon over and over. But after one viewing, Nayáhauri was ready to move on to a different episode. Reminds me of how at the party last Friday, she was not moved to dance to Prince or the Jackson Five but instead shouted to me, “¡No tanto fuerte la música, que los árboles están dormidos!”

P.S You can also find Pocoyó on YouTube in English, and in a Latin American edition, but on this rare occasion I assert that the Spaniards are doing it better.