R.I.P.

This gift may be the death of me.

Did you ever buy something for your child KNOWING it was going to be the PERFECT gift? My 1 year old (almost 2) loves trains. Lives and breathes trains. We've been to three friends' houses with train tables and he will stand there and play for hours. At ToysRUs, he loves the model set they have. At his cousins house - same thing. So we decided this would be the perfect gift for him.

I've been counting down the days until this gift could be opened. Yes, I have been counting down the days. We have this cheap, nasty train set that he asks for every day. The only place to set it up is in the middle of my kitchen floor. The pieces fall apart. The bridges fall down. It causes a lot of tears and drama. And yelling and fit throwing.

I was ready for Christmas. Bring on the train table.

The minute he tore the paper off, he started begging, "Build it, daddy. Build it, daddy!"

The present was opened at grandma's house, since it was from the grandparent's too. We brought it home last night and found a good spot in the basement. I knew it would be the first thing my son went for this morning. He cruised downstairs right after breakfast and I sighed a contented sigh. I could clean up the kitchen in peace. I was mentally making a list of everything I would accomplish today. Wait, what was that noise?

Crying? No way.

Yelling? No way.

Fit throwing? No way. This cannot be happening.

"It's stuck, mama!"

"My train won't hook up, mama!"

"It fell down, mama!"

And, my favorite, "My choo-choo train has a problem, mama!" Great, call in the psych team for that engine, because I am DONE with this train thing.

The disapointment is almost as great as when I was a kid and didn't get exactly what I wanted for Christmas.

OK, technically, I'm still holding out hope that he will figure out what the train can and can't do, how to cross the bridge without causing world war III, and that the magnets don't connect right when you try to put an engine on the front AND the back of the train.

The highlight of my morning - after much crying and screaming (from the child, not me) - was when I read this in the "train manual".

"This toy is intended for the enjoyment and development of children between the ages of 3 and 8. It has been specifically designed and tested for use by children of that age range in a constructive setting...Do not buy your 2-year-old a toy meant for children ages 3 and above...Use of the toy by persons other than children of the intended age may result in injury to the user or bystander..."

Yes, yes, I could see how injury might result from this.....however, they forgot the warning about loss of sanity.