Saturday, July 14, 2007

A bit of a palaver

TLM's had her Fisher Price Ocean Wonders Aquarium (click here for a picture of the latest version) cot toy since she was about 6 months old. It played a small selection of lullabies while a group of little fishies swum in an endless loop, lit by a gentle background glow. I can still remember that fascinated struck-by-headlights stare TLM had (or Baby, as her blog handle was then) as she lay in her cot watching the show.

So recently, when the aquarium music began to sound like an over-stretched cassette tape and the light show stopped working, I was a bit concerned. Surely it couldn't be the batteries, because I'd only replaced then a week or two ago. I came to the unhappy conclusion that our beloved aquarium was on it's last legs and in need of urgent replacement.

We went to three different shops, and finally found an updated version on the top shelf of the Fisher Price aisle at The Warehouse. TLM was so excited at the prospect of playing with it that she insisted it was bedtime, though it was only 4.30pm. The boy quickly got out his handyman gear and moved the batteries from the old toy to the new one.

Half an hour later, I was driving back to the shop because we hadn't been able to get the damn thing to work. The customer service people were very nice about it, not even bothering to check it out for themselves. Of course, I said I'd have to test the replacement before I left with it - although it meant waiting for the assistant to dig around in a big glass jar for spare batteries because the boy hadn't left our ones in.

And you know what? I got the new aquarium home and the boy couldn't get it to work. So he replaced the batteries, and then it was fine.

5 comments:

Angela said...

The things we have to have to make our little ones happy. It is sweet how she wanted to go to bed to watch her fishy’s. Glad you got one working.

Unknown said...

Sounds like The Little Madam may have inherited that special aura you have with electronics. Our Fisher & Paykel house started singing all by itself the other night and nobody had touched it.

Violet said...

the thing is, the first toy was working fine all along - it's just that the batteries were inexplicably worn out already...

And the sad thing is that she doesn't seem to like the new one. Night one, she stayed up to play with it; ever since then she keeps turning it off as soon as I turn it on for her!

Daddy L said...

That was one of our son's favourite toys, until a couple months. Now whenever we turn it on at bedtime, "No, No, No" and punches the off switch.

The complex mind of a toddler huh?

Violet said...

daddy l: damned fickle, they are!