Decisions, decisions, decisions

When Sydney was a year old, I wanted to buy her a play kitchen. I agonized over it. Somehow out of all the kitchens in the world, I settled on Step 2, but from there.... Should I get the Party Time Kitchen, the LifeStyle Dream Kitchen, or the LifeStyle Deluxe Kitchen? The Grand Walk-in Kitchen was obviously out of the question. But the other three were all so nice. On the one hand, the Deluxe Kitchen was obviously the best. It had all that cabinet space, the plate rack, cozy little baskets, a shelf for spices, and plenty of counter space and a lovely window out to nowhere. On the other hand, it carried a hefty price tag of $240 and took up more space than I really had. The Dream Kitchen was therefore my top choice. It had almost as much cabinet space, the same plate rack, a lot of counter space and a nice little window, and better yet, it was almost half the width and a hundred dollars cheaper at $140. I think if Toys R Us had kept it in stock that Christmas, I would have bought it, but they wanted me to pay shipping and handling. So I started looking at the Party Time, which was in stock. It lacked the plate rack, but had a nice spice shelf, no window, but a cute little clock. I preferred the green counter, but the burgundy wasn't bad, but it was $170, more or less the price of the Dream with S&H charges. Which one to get? I was standing around Toys R Us completely undecided. So, I got on the phone with Jeremy and started hashing it out with him. I swear at the point in the conversation at which I started in on the color of counters, he interrupted me and said, "You are spending as much time on this decision as you would if you were buying actual counter tops! IT IS A TOY!" He sighed. Then he asked me to go through the choices again. When I was done, he said, "Okay, it's ordered." I said, "What?" He said, "In the time it took you to tell me all of this, I found Step 2's website, found they have free shipping right now, and ordered a kitchen for a price I was willing to pay." So, the million dollar question? Which kitchen did he order? He would not tell me! "You'll get to be surprised just like Sydney," he said.

And I was.

It turns out that Step 2 also had a Custom Kitchen which was only $100 that I hadn't even looked at in my on-line searches and I promise you, when it came, I couldn't remember which one I really wanted in the first place.

As for Sydney?

She never actually played with the kitchen.

Until last month.


When a nice family of bears moved in.

Yes, that would be the spice rack which they are now using as their kitchen. The top of the 'fridge is their playroom and the bottom of the 'fridge is the Mama and Papa Bear's bedroom. The microwave is where they keep their motorcycle, the sink is Baby Bear's room, and the oven is Big Sister Bear's room.

I am so glad that I let Jeremy handle this decision.