DORA

I rarely purchase character shirts for my children. I think they look tacky but if they persist, I will relent. Yet, my children fall in love with characters.
ASD boy, now 6, LOVED Thomas the train for years. He had a Thomas themed birthday three years in a row. He didn't have a big vocabulary when he was two years old but he could name all of the Thomas character. Another positive is I think he learned color and number recognition from those little trains.
Our middle son, now 4, hasn't been quite as loyal. He goes through smaller phases - Mickey Mouse was a favorite for a while, then Spiderman, Iron Man, Transformers, etc.. but nothing really stuck for him. This was quite a contrast after his brother wore a hooded Thomas towel on his head for a year straight.
The Princess is now 22 months. We've picked up Barbies and Strawberry Shortcake along the way but as with the boys, we haven't pushed anything her way. She loves babies and was content with that choice. That is until the last two weeks... now she LOVES Dora. I thought it was a fluke in a Kansas City toy store when she gravitated toward a $30 Dora toy. We didn't get it but she really wanted it!
The other day she picked out the fruit snack treat - Dora, not Princesses or Mickey. Yesterday we made a quick shopping trip and she yelled for Dora soup. I appeased her and she carried the can around for two hours.
I'm curious to see how long she stays interested in Dora. We don't watch many Dora or Diego cartoons. Will this be short lived like our middle son or will it be a longer obsession like her ASD brother? Hopefully the summer garage sales will have some fun Dora things for us to pick up for her.