KATE RIDES...NOT AGAIN, BUT FINALLY!!

I have quite a confession to make.....Twas the night before Christmas and Scott and Kate and I had just returned from our friends, the Powells' house. Kate drank some milk, jumped in her jammies and went down for a long winter's nap. Scott and I, on the other hand, had more to do. Just before leaving for the Powells, Kate spilled an entire cup of juice on the floor. We wiped it up and Scott wanted to mop the entire floor right then. I, on the other hand, convinced him that we could mop once we got home (especially since I was in charge of bringing the corkscrew to the party and it would be frowned upon for me to be late, if you catch my drift!!). Well, after we cleaned up that mess and prepared our brunch for the next morning, we went up to the bonus room (Santa's workshop) to get things ready for the big day. Scott worked on blowing up Kate's jumping gym and I started putting together the 4 wheeler. We were both so proud of our handy work when we were done. (I must insert that I am the normally the Jasper who puts most things together around our house. That's because I don't mind reading directions.) Well, sometimes even the best "readers" can have trouble with some not-so-clear directions. Needless to say, on Christmas morning when we put Kate on her 4 wheeler (which she thought was fabulous) for the first ride, the crazy thing wouldn't work. After much looking-it-over, we figured out that I had put the back wheels on the wrong sides of the toy. The little grooves on the wheel that the gears turn was in the wrong place so it just sat there spinning out!! Well, of course I was exasperated and felt like I had totally ruined this big day for her. Luckily for me, Kate's attention span is quite short and she lost interest quickly. So Scott and I set about the simple task of taking the back wheels off and switching places. Sounds easy, but not in actuality! To get those things off, you literally had to break the toy which rendered it out of commission!! Thank goodness, I had saved the instructions. I fretted until the "toy parts place" opened back up on January 2nd!!! I told the customer service rep my plight and he happily sent me the parts I had to destroy in the name of "fixing" the toy. Well, the parts arrived today and Kate had her first official ride tonight. I'm sure we will have fun telling her this story someday. The good news is that she now thinks she has a new toy again. After she tired of riding it for about 3 minutes she went on to playing with something else. Scott and I left the room and came back to find her standing on top of it watching Blue's Clues. Maybe she was channeling her inner Evil Kanevil!! Check out the pictures below.