In Which Nicholas Comes Down with a Case of Consumeritis

We took Nicholas to Toys 'R Us this weekend.

Big mistake.

There was a purpose to the visit. We had waited a little while to open one of his big Christmas presents because he wasn't quite ready for it, but went ahead this weekend and broke open the box. Unfortunately, the toy was not nearly what it was advertised. Parts were broken (some pieces looked like they'd been chewed on); much of it looked dirty; the screws to hold in the battery cases for the electronic parts were stripped. Not good. [NB: the gift-giver has already been made aware of the problem, and what's more sad is that Nicholas like the idea of the toy.]

Sarah called Toys 'R Us, and it turns out that we could still return it, but since we were so close to the ninety-day window (yes, it's been that long since Christmas) we decided to go ahead and return it and use the money to replace it with similar items that he'd enjoy and that we'd trust. We took him to let him pick out said replacements.

As we entered the store, our wonderful little boy became possessed. "I want this!" "I want that!" "But Nicholas, you don't know what that is!"

His eyes bugged out and stayed that way until we left. He wanted everything. He wanted to get a Power Wheels car, though he was happy just to sit in it for a minute. He wanted train accessories. He wanted tools (which we were there to get). He wanted more things for his play kitchen (some of which we intended to buy, but not 500 pieces of plastic food). Neither of us had ever seen him like that before, and it was scary.

Moral of the story: Nicholas is welcome to go to Toys 'R Us again, just as soon as he has a driver's license and a real car.