Cross my heart, Hope to die, Drive a nail into my forehead

About two months ago I put a moratorium on the purchasing of electronic shrieking toys for Chicky Baby. Along with the number of primary-colored plastic things, the amount of toys that required batteries in my house - that weren't for adult-only activities, if you catch my drift - had reached an all-time, migraine-inducing high. They are everywhere, in every corner of my home, and I just couldn't take one more talking piano or singing Muppet. I promised myself that I would not buy anymore electronic toys for awhile. I had had enough.

So, in the spirit of my woodworking ancestors, I went out and purchased this:


At first Chicky was skeptical. She gave me a look as if to say "What? You expect me to pull this thing? You mean it doesn't move on it's own when you hit a button?"

But then we told her that the position of "Crocodile Hunter" was open and she warmed up to the idea.


And then we bought her a Little Tykes scooter. At the very least she could start a suburban Massachusetts chapter of the Hells Angels. In this picture I'm pretty sure she's trying to make Elmo her bitch.

But her favorite toy continued to be the talking Fridge Farm.

In case you've never seen one of these things, all two of you because it seems almost everyone has this toy of satan, the object is to match the front part of the farm animal to the rear end. If the child does it correctly it sings a happy tune "You made a match, look what you found...". If the child matches, say a duck's head and a horse's body it says something like "You put a duck in front, you put a horse behind, put them together and what do you find? A duck/horse? That's silly."

After hearing this little ditty for the 17 billionth time I decided the words should be different.

"A duck/horse? That's genetically impossible! But we're working on it."

"A cow/pig? That sounds delicious! But don't tell PETA we said that because then millions of vegetarian families will boycott our product."

Because she loves this toy so much I decided to lift the moratorium for one product specifically. This one.



Yes folks, Fridge Phonics. Not only was it a huge hit with Chicky Baby but now the scooter and the wooden alligator have been abandoned in favor of playing the ABC song over and over. And over. And over. I really shot myself in the foot this time. This is my husband's take on it.

Or maybe he was just gas-y. I don't really know. What I do know is if I leave the batteries in it I get a few minutes to myself but I forfeit the right to complain about the noise.


Yep, that about sums it up.


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Tomorrow I'll be naming the winners of the Name That Dog Blog contest. The only problem is...

Um...

I haven't decided yet.

In my defense, there were so many great suggestions that it's hard to choose. So if you wouldn't mind giving me an additional 2 cents (c'mon, two cents, that won't even buy you a piece of candy these days. But we're not really talking about currency, are we?) and throw your vote in for one of the Titles and Tag Lines below. I narrowed down the field of possibilities to make it easier for everyone. Especially me. I think with all the two cents I'm getting I will go out and buy a new decision-making mechanism for my brain. What do you think one of those would run me? Ten bucks? I wonder if Target carries them.

Titles:

Unleashed
Dog Gone Blog
Dogs Gone Blog
Sit, Stay, Speak
The Canine Companion
The Dogosphere
End of my Leash
To the Dogs
Wag the Dog

Tags:

Sit, Stay, Speak
Cookies for Everyone!
Tales and Treats for Dogs and the People who love them

If there were any titles or taglines that you loved and I missed from the last dog post or if there are any others that you've just thought of let me know. Don't forget, gift cards are at stake here, people.