So Nate has this little toy, the LeapFrog Spin and Sing Alphabet Zoo. It’s a pretty neat little toy, if a bit mind-numbing: spin a wheel with the alphabet on it, and it starts singing and playing music until the wheel stops, whereupon it announces the letter it’s stopped on. Like Wheel of Fortune for babies. I kind of like the tune, too, “spin spin a letter, look all around,” etc. although folks like my friend’s wife refer to it as “that fucking toy.” We just call it “spin spin a letter” and leave it at that. Nate actually just likes the spinning, not the music, so we get away with occasionally leaving the sound off.
Anyway. The wheel is well sensored, so it knows when and how much it’s being moved. Music stops promptly when spinning stops, and moving it one letter at a time does get the toy to say each letter in sequence. “B! C! D! C!”
Tonight Amy picked up the spin spin a letter to put it away. Nonbelievers would tell you the wheel had landed on either X or Z, but I took the device more literally, for it cried out, plaintively, as it was being put away:
“Why! Why!”
Don’t worry, little buddy, Nate will make a beeline for you in the morning.