Dad’s First Toy Mission

Shortly after Christmas last year, I began finding bowls of water in our kids’ bathroom. At first glance, this was not unusual. The Little Monkey had been giving her dolls baths for some time and the bathtub and sink area was often filled with various bowls and buckets of water with wet dolls lounging inside. The difference now was that the dolls were gone, and in their place, small beads had settled at the bottom of the bowl. When I asked her what they were, she informed me that they were Orbeez, or at least, she hoped they were. Orbeez, I discovered this past spring, were beads that magically grew in water, and they were only available in India, a piece of information that had been relayed to her from a friend in our condo building who had spent her Christmas vacation in Delhi. When I told her that, incidentally, she had been to India when she was just a baby, she immediately asked when we were going to go back. To get Orbeez of her own, of course.

I didn’t give these Orbeez much thought for the next few months. The water bowls full of beads had disappeared from the bathroom and the Little Monkey had moved on to other interests, including a burgeoning love for The My Little Ponies. Then one day, the beads were back. The first time, I hadn’t thought to ask what exactly the little beads were. I just figured she found them in some arts and crafts kit around the house. This time, I noticed a package next to the bowl and finally discovered what it was that the Little Monkey thought were Orbeez. They were the small silicone balls that are included in the packages of dried seaweed we occasionally buy for the kids as a treat. The Little Monkey extracted the silicone pack, opened it up and poured the contents into a bowl of water, patiently waiting and hoping that these were Orbeez. When I explained what they were, she stepped up her demands to go to India to get her hands on the real thing.

In moments like these, I recall how demanding I was as a kid, and say to myself, “It’s happening!” The tortures I inflicted upon my parents are circling back to me. The Little Monkey is entering the phase in which she finds something she wants, and then doesn’t stop asking until she gets it. From personal recollections, this phase lasts from early childhood to early adulthood, so I guess I better settle in and start a reserve fund. My parents rarely tease me about this phase, perhaps they are still traumatized by it, but my grandmother brings it up every time I see her. She’s eighty-seven now and likes to reminisce a lot, which in her case means to point out all the ways in which my sisters and I tortured our parents, and her as well. We lived in Sydney, Nova Scotia when we were young. My grandmother lived in Hamilton, which meant she had access to bigger toy stores and more merchandise. She did a lot of the toy hunting in those days and won’t let us forget it.

So now it begins with us. I figured it would be easy in the days of Amazon, Inidigo and Toys R Us online, but my online searches revealed to me that Orbeez are not yet a popular product. Those available on Amazon were twice the retail price I found on ToysRUs.ca (and Indigo had none), but at Toys R Us online, I was a little unclear what was featured in each package, and so I decided it was time for the Little Monkey to experience the wonder of a giant toy store, an experience that I recall used to blow my mind. Against all reasoning, I packed up our double stroller at rush hour, plumped in the Little Man so he could come along for the ride, and bravely told the Little Monkey that we were going to buy Orbeez at Toys R Us as a present for her recently completing her first year of school. She informed me that her friend, the one with the Orbeez, told her that you can’t buy Orbeez at Toys R Us, but I let her know that we can get them at this special Toys R Us. I didn’t even call ahead. I was caught up in the moment of my first toy hunt. I knew this might be the last one that I actually enjoyed.

We got them. I delivered on my promise and so now the hard part begins. Each year at Christmas, I’ll be joining the hordes of parents trying to find the hottest new toy. When I grew up in the eighties, there were stories of consumers literally fist fighting in Walmart aisles over Cabbage Patch Dolls, and I once read a case study describing how toy makers would often limit the supply of hot toys in December so that they could keep toy sales steady by restocking the shelves in January and February, when guilty parents who had promised a toy and failed to deliver now had to spend more money buying the promised toy. Yashy and I are part of that now, and so are our parents actually, again. Only this time around, they get to hear less of the complaining. It’s our turn for that.

p.s – Don’t forget  to enter our Starlight and Toys R Us Flash Bear giveaway!