We’re back home now. After a somewhat bizarre ride home.
While down in New York, we’d visited John’s aunt and uncle for a bit, who gave Phoebe a new toy. (Actually, this gift was largely provided as a distraction to keep Phoebe from eating the cardboard jigsaw puzzle pieces that were spread out on their coffee table.) Phoebe’s new toy is also a puzzle, a wooden one with little cutout shapes with pictures of animals. When you pop each piece into place, once the batteries are installed, it emits a noise corresponding to the animal on that piece. John’s aunt and uncle didn’t have the two AAA batteries needed for the toy, so we didn’t get to hear the animal sounds till we got back to John’s parents’ house. There, we found some batteries, and installed them in the puzzle into the little compartment that is held closed by a phillips head screw. I tell you this for a reason.
Last night, as we were driving home, with various piles of stuff and bags of toys in the back of the car, we made a discovery. When the puzzle gets cold, it doesn’t need to have the pieces inserted or removed in order to activate the sounds. And we didn’t have a phillips head screw driver in the car with us. Or other tools, such as a hammer, that could be used to smash it open. The puzzle nearly got abandoned at a rest area. Happily, it did eventually quiet down when the car warmed up.
Lesson: When travelling with battery operated noise-emitting toys, consider removing the batteries first.
Request to toy makers: Please always include an “off” switch on your battery operated toys. Especially those that need tools to access the battery compartment.
Fun game: Can you identify these animal sounds?
collecting tokens 