My latest frustration. I think I should become a toy maker. Or at least advise those who do make toys. Here's the thing. My son loves going to work with his dad. He's a farmer, so Cash is obsessed with any type of large machinery- trucks, tractors, combines, semi-trucks. He loves it all. So of course, tractors and trucks are his favorite toys. His absolute favorites are loaders and dump trucks. This is what he has been playing with for weeks:
The problem: that is as high as the loader goes. It just can't dump anything in the truck without Cash picking the loader up. When he does that, everything falls out of the loader bucket before it gets to the truck and Cash ends up mad and frustrated. Every time.
So, I went on a mission to find a loader and dump truck that matched each other- where the loader can easily dump his Lincoln Logs into the truck. I thought this was going to be easy. Wrong. First of all, they don't even have loaders at normal places, like Target. Even Wal-Mart (where I don't like going) doesn't carry loaders. I couldn't even find a loader at Murdoch's (a farm supply store that sells all kind of farm toys).
I then of course went on the internet. No help because they don't sell the loaders and dump trucks as a set, so I don't know if the loader is going to reach high enough (which is the whole problem in the first place). So I decided to go to the source- our local John Deere dealership. Surely they will have what I need.
Well, they had half of what I need. Just the loader, not the truck. In fact, they had lots of different loaders. I decided to get the biggest one so it will be large enough to reach any truck.
You can't really tell how big it is in the picture, but it is plenty big. The age listed on the package is 2 and up. Perfect, Cash will be 2 in just a few weeks, so we should be good to go.
We got the loader home and I think I was more disappointed than Cash. First of all, it is way too big for any truck we have. Secondly, when Cash drives the loader around, it has no mechanism to keep the bucket up, so it just scrapes on the floor. Finally, this feature is absolutely worthless to a two year old:
Okay, maybe a 22 year old has enough strength to squeeze that handle. But not any two year old I know.
So this is what we resorted to:
A plastic tub for a dump truck. Which is no good at all, because it can't dump anything, which of course, makes Cash mad. Ughhhhhhhhhhhhh!
Next step. We were at my sister's house the other day and Cash ran straight to his cousin Bryce's loader. Of course he was thrilled to be playing with it. Which gave me the idea of trying this loader out for the day (Bryce was gone for a few days, so I thought that would be good timing).
I thought this might be the one. I was about to ask my sister where they got it so I could go get one for Cash. When- Cash discovered that his Lincoln Logs won't fit comfortably in the bucket, which of course, makes him mad. At least I hadn't bought one yet.
So- If anyone knows of a loader/dump truck set that works perfectly together, please let me know. Until, then, he's just going to have to get by with the giant loader/plastic tub combination!
Oh, for those of you checking to see if we have the last project of the Hugs and Kisses feature, unfortunately, our fabric still hasn't arrived. Maybe next Valentine's Day!
-posted by Lisa