The New Addition to our family

Meet our new friend, RoboPet. We can't kill him! Only his batteries die. Shaun, Jacelyn's Godfather, gave her this for Christmas. It is so cool. She has named him Best Friend Nikki:She is scared of him, but thankfully he is remote controlled, so she can appreciate him from a distance. Some of his finer points (blatantly stolen from the Best Buy website):

*Realistic, fluid, biomechanical movements include walking, running, crawling, sitting, lying down, getting up and rolling over
*Moods range from playful to naughty, curious, angry, depressed and rude
*Environmental awareness and interactivity include IR Vision, which detects and avoids obstacles and table edges (from me: a lie - Best Friend Nikki has fallen off three tables)
*Sonic sensors respond to sounds (according to moods), while motion sensors respond to human movements
*Emits digital animal sounds, such as barking, whimpering, growling and panting
*Responds to positive and negative reinforcement, performs tricks on command and even responds to commands from Robosapien V2
*"Laser" leash technology lets you trace a path on the ground and he will follow it
*Includes visual and sonic guard dog modes as well as sleep and auto shut-off functions

AND she's getting a Robosapien for Christmas from Brian's father, so she will have robopet and the roboguy. The dog also farts, and mimics peeing, and you can't go wrong with toilet humor for a four year old. I must confess to playing with him, under the guise of 'figuring it out for Jacelyn', even at one point holding the remote over her head and saying, "Mommy has to figure this out so I can show you how to work it". Riiiiiiight. I just wanted to play. But, 1.) I'm the mommy, and I earned the right to play with her toys first, and 2.) I'm bigger. Ha! Welcome to the family, Best Friend Nikki! May your batteries last long, and may nothing important be broken off your wiry body by my enthusiastic child. I explained to her how fragile he was and how she shouldn't bend or break any parts of him. And then while in the car on the way home, Jacelyn announced, "His foot can turn all the way around". I sharply asked her to repeat herself, and she quickly said, "Nothing, nothing". Mm-hmm.