Egghead grandma
Thursday, September 23, 2010 I recently ran across a pretty nifty gift for Bubby: Hatch-N-Grow dinosaur eggs!
How awesome is that!?
I ordered the eggs, they arrived, and I was quite excited to try one out before popping a few in the mail to Bubby, just to ensure it wasn't totally lame. (Sea monkeys anyone?)
Here's how it works:
I placed the egg -- the size of a regular chicken egg -- into a glass of water as directed. Per the package, I should have a little dinosaur head cracking through within 24-48 hours.
And I did!
Very cool! Get a load of that cute little dino grin!
Despite the "Age 3+" notation on the package, I just knew Bubby would love watching the dinosaur hatch. So I planned to send him not just one, but two packages, just in case he wanted twice the fun ... or just in case Megan wanted to use one to amaze the 4-year-olds in her classroom.
Megan called the other night to confirm the time of our weekly Skype session, and I told her about the very cool dinosaur egg, my practice hatch, and my plans to send Bubby a couple in the mail.
"He won't like that," she said.
"What? It's a hatching dinosaur! It's so cool! He'll love it!"
"No. He won't. He'll be scared of it," she assured me.
"Um, I don't think so," I responded. "I'm going to show him during our Skype session and you'll see. He's going to love it!"
We proceeded to Skype and I could barely contain my excitement as I grabbed the glass of water containing the magnificent emerging dinosaur and held it toward the webcam so Bubby could see.
He grew silent. And slowly leaned back into Megan for protection.
"It's a dinosaur!" I smiled and explained, trying to turn him on to the delights of the mini dino.
"Scary," he said so quietly that Megan had to translate.
"He's two, Mom. That's scary to him," Megan said.
I couldn't believe it. Yeah, the recommended age is three and up, but I figured that was because some little kids might eat pieces of the cracked shell. Or drink the water. Or bite off chunks of the dinosaur once it was fully grown. Not Bubby, though. He wouldn't do that. He'd be fascinated by the emerging prehistoric figure, I was sure.
But he wasn't. And isn't. And won't be for quite some time, apparently.
So I'll be packing away the boxes of eggs I purchased for Bubby. Unlike real eggs, they won't go bad. And I'm sure that by the time he's three, he'll be more than ready to plop an egg in a glass and keep a constant eye on the dinosaur's progress as it cracks through the egg.
In the meantime, I'll keep a constant eye on my dinosaur, eagerly awaiting the day it breaks completely free from the egg.
Maybe once it does I'll then show the fully hatched dino to Bubby during a Skype session. Maybe it's the egg that scares him! I'll just have the adorable mini dinosaur ready and waiting to surprise him during a Skype visit.
Of course I'll have to ask Megan first. As hard as it is to admit, Megan obviously knows better than Gramma.
At least when it comes to Bubby.
Sheesh ... this grandma gig isn't as cut and dry as one might think!
Today's question:
Have you ever had a gift-giving experience fall stupendously flat?
Reader Comments (12)
OHHHH! I think that is just the coolest thing, hatching dino eggs! But I understand too, that for Bubby, that's a scary thing :-) When my oldest was about that age, she was equally enthralled and terrified of this pumpkin-shaped light display my mom hung in the window at Halloween. It was just a plastic outline of an orange pumpkin, with orange lights around it and the face, and green at the stem. She absolutely hated when that thing was plugged in, and was a bit afraid when mom gave it to me, thinking that since my daughter liked to look at it so much, she'd enjoy it more in her own house :-) NOT! It took a few years for that to happen!
I don't remember a gift that I gave any child that received quite that reaction but, the Christmas when Jeff was four and Becky was two, Jeff wanted only Mr.Loo, a standing, battery-operated dinosaur-like robot creature, flashing red eyes and all, and every time Becky saw or heard it, she went nearly convulsive, screaming at the top of her lungs and acting like she was going into a seizure. She seemed to think we had the Devil himself on a string and He was coming straight at her! I don't remember what ever became of Mr. Loo but I know Jeff had to play with him some place where Becky could NOT see nor hear him. What a Christmas.
Guess its probably a good thing you didn't traumatize him by making it go straight for your throat after birth, ala Aliens.
When my nieces and nephews were little (they're all in high school now!), I would buy gifts for Christmas and birthdays. One Christmas everyone of them opened my gifts and said, "Look, Mom! I got another one." Obviously they all had too many aunts, uncles, moms, dads and grandparents buying them toys. I'm not going to be the aunt that gives socks, so I started giving cash and gift cards.
It's hard to take when my daughter is right about Shylee!!! I was going to buy Shylee a baby doll that wiggled and squirmed like a real baby. We went through the toy department so I could see how much she liked this doll and to my surprise, she was scared and wanted nothing to do with it. Her mama told me she wouldn't like it!
Um, if Bubby's not going to use it, can I have it? That looks SO cool! In fact, I may have to go out this weekend and get one. Where did you buy it?
Last year, we were with my niece right before Easter so we decided to color Easter eggs. But first we had some things we needed to do. Well, in 4 year old time, we were dragging our heels and actually causing time to go BACKWARDS and she was completely exasperated. So I gave her a coloring book that I had bought for her to tide her over until we could get around to the Easter eggs. It did NOT go over well. A coloring book just did not have the same allure as sticking one's hands in dye.
My 3-year-old got a princess castle for Christmas that grows after you drop it in water ... and was crazy disappointed when it took three days to double in size. (Which meant it was still small enough to put in her pocket.) But maybe Bubby will be more enchanted by things like that. :)
Almost every gift-giving experience with my mom falls flat. I often think she'll be super excited about something only to find she's only moderately interested.
In answer to the question, YES! My mother-in-law loves puzzles, so we had a puzzle made that looked like the front page of the newspaper from the day & year of her birth. She made no secret of the fact she hated it!
We were so excited to give our son, Glenn, a 1st birthday backyard luau (we lived in Hawaii). One of the neighbors was a professional clown, and we hired him to perform. Glenn had an absolute screaming fit every time the clown would go anywhere near him, and he kept an eye on him from his highchair, constantly. Little guy was miserable. To this day, he hates clowns. We scarred him for life, poor guy....
Terri
My gift situation was slightly different. We recently decided to give our piano to our granddaughters. My daughter was thrilled. When I heard from the mover, I left a voice mail on my daughter's phone: "Hey everyone, who's ready to start playing the piano? Watch for the van on Sunday!"
Later that day my daughter called and said: "Mom, you forgot that we wanted to surprise the girls and not tell them when it was arriving!"
I had no recollection of any discussion about a surprise.
The next phone call was from my granddaughters telling me how excited they were that the piano was coming. They could hardly wait.
So I ask you which is better: the joy of anticipation as you wait for something to arrive or the moment of surprise when it actually does arrive?
You can probably guess how I am voting!
PS Your dinosaur egg story just reminded me of how mom and grandma don't always see eye to eye!
I bought those little hatching dinosaurs for my children, they were quite a lot older, and we all loved watching them hatch. But the best thing is you can dry them out afterwards and you are left with a tiny, cute dinosaur that you can keep forever! Ours are still sat on the children's windowsills.
How cute! I have definitely had gifts that I thought others would love that they weren't as excited about. (Stumbled on you from Liz's BlogFrog!)