Bah Humbug

I shared with ya'll the good moments of our holiday, so I thought I'd take a minute to share the downside. Since you know, the holidays can never pass without a glitch. Little man asked Santa for a "game thing" in his letter, and sweet ol' Santa delivered with a V Smile Pocket. GM was beyond excited when he unwrapped it, and started playing it the minute the last gift had been opened.However, his excitement was short-lived. After only 20 minutes of playing, the screen started to blink, a few minutes later, a solid blue screen appeared every time a button was pressed. This resulted in lots of questions, why isn't it working? Momma, why is it broken? Why did Santa bring a bad one?

After distracting the little one with a Pooping Penguin stocking stuffer and a few Imaginex Batman toys, I managed to get him in a better mood. I started researching troubleshooting on the V Smile Pocket and discovered many others had experienced similar issues. While, the company offered no advice, it seems that many attribute the problem to a short circuit or an internal defect. Great, I really want my child playing with something that could potentially be dangerous. I even read one account of the system overheating and melting the batteries. I'm not sure how much truth there is behind that, but I took it as a warning.

The system and games were both returned last night, and hubby happily left Walmart with money in his pocket, which will be put towards a replacement gift later. Luckily, GM also received a Leapster from Santa at Grandma's house, courtesy of my sister-in-law. However, the first Leapster wouldn't read the cartridges. So, that too was returned yesterday, and we exchanged for another one. Thank goodness, the second time was a charm, and GM has been mastering Animal Genius today. He absolutely loves it. It provides lots of fun facts about animals, and quizzes him on what he's learned.

If anyone is looking, I would highly recommend the Leapster over the V Smile any day.