Saturday, August 11, 2007

Throwing out other children's toys

I had dinner over at Chris and Karen's on Thursday evening. Chris made some mad asparagus frittata, which Lindsay devoured - she easily ate over a third of it herself, chased down by a sleeve of crackers, several glasses of milk, and most of Karen's bowl of chocolate ice cream while Karen and Chris debated whether Ross' not coming inside when called for dinner merited a separate punishment other than not getting to have dinner or dessert. My own prejudice had colored my impression that we Mamas bare the brunt of being the disciplinarians while Dads get to be "The Fun Parent". Suffice it to say, Chris really should start Worst. Dad. Ever., because he'd win it hands down.

Chris and Karen keep about a dozen or so toddler-appropriate toys on hand to distract their smallest guests from eating all their sons' toys. This proved particularly handy this visit, as Lindsay at one point tried to use the boys' DS players as cymbals and snacked on a few Japanese Pokemon cards while using a Cars-themed Matchbox van as a roller skate.

As I gathered Lindsay's travel toys into the diaper bag, I noticed that they had a set of Dora figures. Now this had been a favorite of Lauren's - Dora, Boots, and Swiper the Sneaky Fox accompanied us on every restaurant trip from the time she was 18 months old until well beyond her third birthday. It traveled with us to Hawaii when we visited Alec's mom. My own mom bought a set to keep at her house.

I said, "That toy is on Mattel's lead paint recall list..."

"Really?" Karen said.

"Yeah, it was very sad in our house. That was one of Lauren's favorite toys..."

"I didn't really go through the list that carefully," Karen admitted. "We told the boys not to put Thomas into their mouths..."

"Lauren can still barely obey that instruction. Lindsay just laughs."

I awoke this morning to an IM from Chris letting me know that Dora was not deadly, details of the toy's manufacture, and that he was pretty sure trying to throw out other kids' toys earned me a Worst Mama Point. But, Chris, it wasn't just your toy I tried to throw out...I actually threw Lauren's out and instructed my mom to do the same...

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

hmm...i'd say this time 0 WME pts. to Karen for no dinner thing..if Ross wanted dinner, he prob. would have come inside to eat it. hmm. and i'd say 0 WME pts. to Epiph for throwing out or attempting to throw out Dora since it was done with good intentions. unless you secretly are annoyed by Dora and pretended it was on the lead list so you could get lindsay attached to a new toy instead. then you might get 1 WMP :)

karen said...

Dora and her gang have been reinstated in our toddler toy collection, which might be worthy of a WMP as Ross overheard the conversation between Epiphany and me and is now referring to the plastic girl as "Deadly Dora." So, you can all come to our house to play with Deadly Dora and maybe, if you're lucky, we'll be serving Killer Chicken (any recipe with peanuts or peanut oil).

The Plaid Sheep said...

Deadly Dora is a much cooler name. I see her in black pleather. She could come with removable whip and sidearm with options for slinky negligee and a sleek convertible.

Chaotic Joy said...

Oh, I am laughing. Really laughing at this conversation. And boy did I need it today. I am finally back from a week long blogging hiatus and had to stop by here first, seeing how I am supposed to be a contributor and all.

Thanks for the giggles. Deadly Dora indeed.

Anonymous said...

It is not a good thing for a daddy to picture Dora in black pleather...

Ever.

-Alec

karen said...

I heard this morning that Dora is on a World Tour. Considering what happened to Britney after her black pleather wearing world tour, I think we should be looking for some Spawn of Dora horror shows this time next year.