A Little Too Realistic?

Today Grandma & Grandpa C & Uncle Ron came over to celebrate Danielle's birthday. At my suggestion, Uncle Ron bought Danielle a Barbie & Tanner set. (Tanner is Barbie's dog.) Knowing how much Danielle loves dolls and animals, that seemed like a great gift idea. Turns out it was a great gift, but I probably should have actually looked at the product before suggesting it.

Here is the description from the Toys R Us website:

Barbie doll has a dog named Tanner who is just like a real dog! Tanner is soft and fuzzy and her mouth, ears, head and tail really move! You can open Tanner dog's mouth and feed her dog biscuits. Comes with a dog bone and chew toys that Tanner can hold in her mouth, too. When Tanner has to go to the bathroom, Barbie doll cleans up with her special magnetic scooper and trash can. Posable Barbie doll included.

Did you catch that next to last sentence? "When Tanner has to go to the bathroom..." Among other things, this fuzzy dog came with little brown pellets. They go in the mouth as food, and come out a hole in the back of the dog as...well, you know! (Push the tail up & he "swallows", push the tail down and he "deposits".) Then Barbie can use her magnetic pooper scooper to pick up the pellets and throw them in her handy trash can. The trash can has a hook on the back that holds the dog food box. When Barbie deposits the poop pellets into the trash can, they roll through a hole in the can into the attached food box. Barbie can then feed Tanner his poop, er, food and start the whole process over again.

Both kids found this "eating & eliminating" process fascinating. While Danielle was busy playing with another toy, Tyler continuously made the dog eat and poop, eat and poop. At one point the neighbors wandered over a little too close to our open window (Tyler was playing on the window sill). He said, "Look! You feed this dog & the poop comes right out this hole!" Our neighbor smiled politely and hurried her little girl back to their side of the lot. Truth be told, even we adults found this toy somewhat fascinating. Too bad Barbie didn't come with little plastic grocery bags for the poo pellets (and a fly or two). Now that would be realistic.