Toy Shopping Is Therapy for the Soul

Nothing cheers me up quicker than shopping with the kids. Yesterday was no exception.

Two funny things happened.

First, my almost-2 year old is talking pretty well for her age. She still has a problems saying words with multiple syllables, though. So we go to the store and buy her a Dora the Mermaid DVD. She’s excited. But we get to the checkout counter and she’s excited and starts saying “Dora the Explorer” over and over. Only she has trouble saying “Explorer” so it comes out sounding like something else. Kind of like “Dora the Whore-a.” The lady at the cash register stopped and said “Excuuuuse ME?!?!” Mrs. Whitecoat was both embarrassed and tickled with amusement at the same time. I’ve got an audio recording of my daughter saying this same thing at home. Now I just have to figure out how to post it.

Now I know why that “Boots” thing isn’t wearing any pants. Aaaaand … now I know where this whole “Go, Diego, Go!” thing comes in. He isn’t Dora’s cousin. Nickelodeon just makes it look that way to keep the whole “family values” thing going. My two year old already has that down and now I’m just catching on?? Damn us old folk are slow sometimes.

Being in this frame of mind, we also get a toy that makes noises when you pull on a lever. To entice all the parents into buying it, the company puts a tag on the toy so that all the people shopping in the toy store can run out the batteries by pulling on the lever all day and so the people working in the toy store can go nuts listening to the noise. The tag is below. I’m sitting here thinking to myself “Self … what else could I tape this to that would be funnier than the lever of some toy?” Yes … I already thought of that. Where else could I hang it?