"The cow says ... the sheep say ... the pig s ... the ... the ... th ..."
One of Abbie’s favorite toys is the See ‘N Say. That’s the circular toy with the giant spinning arrow in the middle. Point the arrow to a picture (the “see” part), pull the lever on the side down,* and the toy will make a corresponding sound to what it was pointing to (the “say” part). It might make an animal noise, or announce a letter, or implore you to buy more quality Fisher Price toys.
Abbie has two See ‘N Say’s. She got her first one at Christmas. It’s a new-fangled version with all of the latest advancements in toy technology available in a $10 contraption. Unlike the older versions, it’s electronic and runs on batteries. This provides several advantages such as longer sounds and an interactive quiz mode. Best of all, the sounds never distort or go bad, at least not until the batteries die, which should take months, or until a child spits up on the speaker and fries the electronics, rendering the toy useless unless a child really enjoys watching an arrow spin. That last one took about ten weeks in our household. The toy has been in a closet ever since in hopes that the speaker will spontaneously heal itself.
Abbie’s other See ‘N Say is a classic model, by which I mean I bought it for a quarter at a garage sale and it has the year “1989” imprinted on the back. It uses no batteries, instead relying on child-power and magic gnomes, or however it is they make those things work. It’s a Mickey Mouse ABC version, meaning Mickey announces “A, apple,” “Z, zipper,” and everything in between. Or at least he would if Abbie would use it correctly. Instead of pulling the handle and listening to the sound in its entirety, Abbie prefers yanking on the handle as fast as it pops up. This means Mickey can only say a letter or letter fragments before being forced onto the next letter, giving him the toy a stuttering problem that makes it sound like it’s voiced by Mickey’s and Porky Pig’s love child.
Ellie found the toy at the garage sale, and had to talk me into buying it. It may have only been a quarter, but the sounds were distorted beyond recognition. If it weren’t for the sticker around the circle telling the sound, I wouldn’t know what the thing was supposed to be saying. This became an issue after Abbie actually ripped the sticker off, but fortunately by then she’d pulled the lever so many times that I’d memorized each utterance.
Abbie got way more than a quarter’s worth of fun out of this See ‘N Say. She would sit at it for minutes at a time, pulling the lever, listening to the sounds, and shoving her brothers away who were also interested in it. I appreciated the fact that the children could spit up or drool on it all day, which they’ve done, without damaging it. Plus, I could launch it into the toy box from across the room without breaking it.
Then it broke. I don’t know what happened, but the arrow doesn’t spin and the lever doesn’t retract. I’m guessing that a spring came loose and lodged itself into the spinning mechanism, or perhaps the magic gnomes went searching for a more patient little girl to entertain. Regardless, the toy now sits busted on the floor, taunting Abbie with memories of lever pulling and waiting for me to remember to throw it out. Someday I’m going to replace it, preferably after the boys have passed this spitting up phase.
* Or pull the string out in the old-fashioned strangulation-hazard edition.
Abbie has two See ‘N Say’s. She got her first one at Christmas. It’s a new-fangled version with all of the latest advancements in toy technology available in a $10 contraption. Unlike the older versions, it’s electronic and runs on batteries. This provides several advantages such as longer sounds and an interactive quiz mode. Best of all, the sounds never distort or go bad, at least not until the batteries die, which should take months, or until a child spits up on the speaker and fries the electronics, rendering the toy useless unless a child really enjoys watching an arrow spin. That last one took about ten weeks in our household. The toy has been in a closet ever since in hopes that the speaker will spontaneously heal itself.
Abbie’s other See ‘N Say is a classic model, by which I mean I bought it for a quarter at a garage sale and it has the year “1989” imprinted on the back. It uses no batteries, instead relying on child-power and magic gnomes, or however it is they make those things work. It’s a Mickey Mouse ABC version, meaning Mickey announces “A, apple,” “Z, zipper,” and everything in between. Or at least he would if Abbie would use it correctly. Instead of pulling the handle and listening to the sound in its entirety, Abbie prefers yanking on the handle as fast as it pops up. This means Mickey can only say a letter or letter fragments before being forced onto the next letter, giving him the toy a stuttering problem that makes it sound like it’s voiced by Mickey’s and Porky Pig’s love child.
Ellie found the toy at the garage sale, and had to talk me into buying it. It may have only been a quarter, but the sounds were distorted beyond recognition. If it weren’t for the sticker around the circle telling the sound, I wouldn’t know what the thing was supposed to be saying. This became an issue after Abbie actually ripped the sticker off, but fortunately by then she’d pulled the lever so many times that I’d memorized each utterance.
Abbie got way more than a quarter’s worth of fun out of this See ‘N Say. She would sit at it for minutes at a time, pulling the lever, listening to the sounds, and shoving her brothers away who were also interested in it. I appreciated the fact that the children could spit up or drool on it all day, which they’ve done, without damaging it. Plus, I could launch it into the toy box from across the room without breaking it.
Then it broke. I don’t know what happened, but the arrow doesn’t spin and the lever doesn’t retract. I’m guessing that a spring came loose and lodged itself into the spinning mechanism, or perhaps the magic gnomes went searching for a more patient little girl to entertain. Regardless, the toy now sits busted on the floor, taunting Abbie with memories of lever pulling and waiting for me to remember to throw it out. Someday I’m going to replace it, preferably after the boys have passed this spitting up phase.
* Or pull the string out in the old-fashioned strangulation-hazard edition.
posted by Matt at
11:15 PM
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