Fatherhood = sore back
I guess the good folks at Fisher Price weren't on the same page as Laney when they designed a couple of their more traditional toys several decades ago. Remember the little 'corn popper' toy that has a 'long' handle poking out the back of it and it would 'pop' the balls like popcorn as you push it around? Great toy. They still make it.
The only design flaw I can see though is that I'm the one pushing it most of the time, not Laney. Laney knows how to push it and will occasionally push it around when she's playing by herself. But whenever I play with her, she immediately grabs that thing and hands it to me so I can chase her with it. It's great fun actually as it makes her extremely giddy and it's fun to watch her run (and wear herself out.) But the thing is, she likes nothing better than to do that non-stop for a LONG time. A 6-foot tall guy pushing a toy designed for a 2-foot tall child for that long is a recipe for back pain disaster.
Laney likes to help out though by giving me a variety of things to push/pull while chasing her. She'll also grab that rolling musical barrell thing (very similar to the popper actually) as well as rolling butterfly with a pull-string about 12-inches long (i.e., even more hunching over.) And I don't know how, but she can instantly detect if I decide to drop one of these toys (to ease my pain) as I'm chasing her around the house. She'll immediately stop the chase and make me realize I made a mistake and wait until I've picked the dropped toy back up again.
It's all worth it though. :) I'm going to go take some Advil now.
Your probably Laney's favorite toy.
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