Out of my league...

You will notice that the background has been reverted back to its original pink. I leave "Big Daddy" alone for a night with my password and the blog gets an unnecessary make-over. I learned my lesson. I am still away for work this week so, unfortunately, this means no pictures. I promise that this coming weekend will provide an opportunity for lots of pictures. We are invading Primo Rudy's casa and spending the weekend taking in the boardwalk and rides.

I am in NYC on business this week. After my training today, I decided that I would get Max and Rudy a little something. I try my hardest not to buy Max something every time I go away since I don't want him to expect something each time. But, I couldn't resist this week since I was only a few blocks away from the Toys R Us in Times Square. Both boys are very easy to buy for these days. I know I can't go wrong showing up with cars for Rudy. And, lately, Max has become interested in Transformers. For those of you not frequent diners at fast food joints, McDonald's is currently giving away Transformers with their Happy Meals. This is great for us - I was getting really tired of asking for a "girl toy" since Max hasn't been particularly interested in the "boy toys" recently.

After I quickly decided upon some lovely cars for Rudy, I headed to the Transformers section. Let me just say that I am officially out of my league with toys now. Despite never having a brother or other young male influence in the house growing up, I thought I was doing a good job the past few years keeping up with Max's toy phases. I proudly learned all of the Thomas the Tank Engine train names. I tried my hardest to assembly his Hot Wheels tracks and gladly played "crashing" with the cars. I know more dinosaur names than I care to remember. I purchased all of the necessary sporting equipment for his latest interest. I even started to watch the Phillies more often. Today, I lost my battle to keep up.

I walked into the Transformers section confident that I would pick out an innocent car that transformed into a superhero with a few clicks. I walked out a defeated mommy. Perhaps, because I was in one of the world's largest toy stores, but there were many more rows of Transformers than I ever thought could possibly exist. I quickly decided to start sorting through the choices based on price and size. I was not about to tote a large Transformer 15 blocks back to my hotel. Once I found the appropriate section in terms of size and price, I started to try and remember Chris' conversations with Max about the name of the "good" guys. I certainly was not ready to purchase my sweet 4 year old a "bad" guy...at least not yet!

After a few minutes, I realized that I had no clue what I was doing. I vaguely remembered Chris and Max talking about "Optimus Prime." However, I didn't remember anything but his name. When I found Mr. Prime on the shelf, he had guns for arms. Clearly, he was out of the question. We don't let Max play with guns or even pretend to have guns. It seemed every Transformer I picked up with either too scary looking, too violent looking or advertised the ability to shoot rockets. I was beginning to long for the days of Thomas, Percy and Henry.

After 15 minutes of careful inspecting each Transformer, I finally decided upon "Bumblebee." Granted, this yellow superhero comes equiped with rockets. However, they are not attached to him - so they will quickly be taken away before Max plays with his new yellow friend.

This entire experience made me realize how quickly Max is growing up. These silly Transformers are his first "big boy" toy interest. It has also made me realize how difficult it is becoming to stick to our basic parenting guidelines (no violent games, no guns, etc). Hopefully, we are raising Max to understand basic respect and the ability to know right from wrong. I have a feeling we will be seeing exactly how well we are doing thus far as we enter the Transformer Era. Mr. Bumblebee is going to be sent back to his former galaxy/planet/Tranformerland if he learns how to shoot or hurt people. In the meantime, I think I need to take notes on Max and Chris' conversations so I can remember the "good" guys and the "bad" guys.

I wrapped up my exhausting, somewhat emotional shopping trip with a stroll through the doll section. I comforted myself knowing that Lucy's "big girl" toys will hopefully be less intimidating and more compassionate than Max's.