You'd think that someone with 12 years in the toy industry might be an expert at picking out toys? You'd be wrong!

For Charlotte's 5th birthday I wanted to pick an AWESOME toy.  It could not be a doll, even though she'd been asking for La La Loopsy because she doesn't play with dolls, they stay in the toy box, totally ignored.

My first mistake was going to Target instead of Toys R Us.  Our local Target is small and they scale back toys in June to nil, also they are under the assumption that girls only LOVE dolls.  So after much consternation, I selected the vtech MobiGo2 simply on the basis that she loves my iPhone so  maybe she'd be satisfied with her very own electronic device.

Second mistake - not checking the price of associated games.  They run on average $19.99 in stores and it only comes with 3 games.  Games on the iPhone are on average less than $5.00.

Needless to say, she got bored fast.  I didn't take the time to show her how to play each game so that probably didn't help matters.

Now I find myself six months later looking at this chunk of plastic and wondering what to do with it.  I finally went to the vtech website and have realized you must download the Learning Lodge program to order more games and get three free ones.

So just a mild word of warning - don't get them spoiled on the iPhone and make the time investment needed to get the game system set up with enough games to satisfy your little darling.  If not willing to make that commitment then this toy is not for you and your kids. 

Once you do download the Learning Lodge, wait for your computer to shut down unexpectedly and restart; finish cleaning your closet while it reboots.  Start again to download the Learning Lodge.  Finally success!  Reach the website, ooooh, it's like iTunes for kids!  Download free games, think they've transferred to MobiGo, try to find games.  Strangely enough they are not there!  Replug, see that you have to check to move games onto MobiGo, finally find games under Download button.  Don't see why they can't put all the games/apps on the front screen like an iPhone!  Then hand phone to husband who is just aimlessly poking around at his iPhone and demand he play the new games and teach daughter tomorrow since he doesn't appear to be doing anything important anyway. 

If you can get through all that, or maybe you're just smarter than me and this totally doesn't phase you one bit.  You love technology so much that you're thrilled to spend hours setting up your child's play thing.  It's like the tech version of a parent who sets up giant doll houses for their darling.  I'm the lazy parent who wants to hand over toys without any fuss!