The Parrot

A well-meaning and generous family acquaintance heard that Sam was going to be a pirate for Halloween, so she bought him a talking toy parrot.
The day it was given to him, I picked Sam up at Chris's work one afternoon after a meeting, and got both kids home.  It was already late, the kids were hungry, I was hungry, I was tired and the parrot needed batteries.  The parrot required a very, very small tipped screwdriver.  Fifteen minutes later I had only unscrewed one screw and was in the process of stripping the other screw, with Sam, "helping."  I finally found my eyeglass repair kit and got the battery pack opened and the batteries in.
Relieved, I handed Sam the parrot and got Vivian settled with some toys so I could make dinner.  The parrot was repeating everything Sam was saying, in the same tone of voice.  Sam was so excited, that he would repeat what they parrot had repeated, so that I was now hearing everything three times (or four if the toy picked it up again).  Meanwhile Vivi was happy screeching, so the parrot was intermittently happy screeching.  Images of disassembling the parrot began to pass through my mind.  After about a half hour, I convinced Sam that parrots slept a lot and threw a blanket over it, like a "real" parrot.

Sam and the parrot bonding.  It was cute for about five minutes.

However, later that night, the parrot came in handy when Sam threw a fit getting out of the bath.  He was starting in on a great temper tantrum and screaming, so loudly that his aunt left.   I turned on the parrot.  The parrot screamed when Sam screamed.  After two screams Sam froze, "what was that?"

"The parrot repeating you."

Eyes wide, he stared at it, "oh."  The tantrum was over.

The parrot made appearances on and off for days, until I relocated it to a high shelf to watch over everything and rest up for Halloween.