BUSTED!

I went to a friend's house the night before last for dinner with the girls. It was soooo relaxing and fun! I looked at my watch and it was 11:15 already!! (It's a 50 minute drive home) I headed home, managed to stay awake on my way, and enjoyed my first opening of the garage door (we only recently got a garage door opener and I'd never had the pleasure of pressing the button and pulling on in), and came in. I set my stuff down and turned off the lights. I carefully proceeded down the halll and up the stairs. I congratulated myself on having avoided the miscellaneous toys scattered in the hall and on my silent ascent. About 3/4 of the way up the stairs I remembered that I'd taken my glasses and contact case with me in case I needed to take my contacts out. Duh duh duh (imagine that sound effect you hear on tv shows). I sneak carefully back down the stairs and make my way to the kitchen and turn on a light. Procure the glasses and case and turn the light off. Sneak back down the hall when.....Barbie suddenly declares "WELCOME BACK!!!! THANKS FOR STOPPING BY!!!! THIS IS BARBIE!" If I could make that font bigger, I would. It scared the bejeebers out of me and for a moment, I thought it had woken the kids. UGH. Fortunately it didn't and I went up to bed without further incident.

It did cause me to think about ridding our household of that toy once and for all. I HATE it. It's a hand me down from my sister's sister-in-law and it's a horrible toy. For one thing, the lid "locks" when you shut it and only the oldest kids can open it. That causes the younger kids to bring it to me no less than 37 times a day to be opened. The on/off button is in an alluring location such that the little kids enjoy pressing it repeatedly. So we hear the greeting, then the goodbye, then the greeting, then the goodbye....over and over and OVER! And the worst insult of them all - there's no volume control (which I didn't realize until I'd already given it to Kailin) and it yells. ALL THE TIME. It's above her age level and the first thing it always yells is "ENTER YOUR NAME!!!!!" Well she can't do that yet and when she doesn't, it yells the request again! And again. And some more after that. I'm not sure what finally triggers it to give up, but it takes AWHILE. Additionally, it's what I call a "call back toy" and if you leave it unattended for any period of time, it screams out inquiries as to your whereabouts about 972 times before it finally screams that it is turning itself off. Usually that last one is the one that jars the kids into running over and pushing a button and then we start the whole thing over again. But they LOVE it. And it does let you play music. Still, I think one of these nights it might just disappear.

At any rate, I never figured I'd be busted by BARBIE for sneaking in late!!