(no subject)

My Aunt, donor of the The Truck That Hits You In the Solar Plexus, has attempted to make up for her initial semi-disastrous gift by getting Danger Lad! a different truck. (In my aunt's defense, I do not see how she could have guessed about the wheel base on that thing, which was completely concealed by the packaging, also, this is not a problem my elder niece ever had.) The new truck has a much safer wheel base (axels all the way to the end), and a button on the top of the cab. Press the button once, and you hear a cow. Press it again, you hear a pig. Press it a third time and it plays "Old MacDonald." The packaging made the claim that this toy would teach children cause and effect. (Parental note: Getting smacked in the chest repeatedly by the first truck did not accomplish this lesson, so why do we think noises will?) So far as I can tell, what this toy actually does is arrange that everything in our house has a soundtrack of "Old MacDonald." DangerLad! presses the button until he gets to the music, then waves his hands enthusiastically, then settles down to press the button again.

Also, he found the panic button on my car keys.

So it's been loud.

In things that aren't about motherhood, slate.com has an article about Anne of Green Gables that makes me want to reread the entire series.