Some Assembly Required

I can remember the moment it happened...

It was one of my niece's birthdays and I was going to help my brother put together the rainbow princess castle, complete with fairy dust unicorn clouds...How hard could it be?

This piece goes here, this one connects there.  You get the idea.  Then I had the last part in my hands, ready to finish building the castle in all my uncle glory.  The inspired optimism of an onward watching birthday girl, waiting, oh-so-impatiently, for the toy that will define her childhood's benchmark of pure happiness.

Wait for it....wait for it...!@#$...%^&* (all in my head of course) followed by the sound of uncontrollable sobbing...sobbing unlike anything I had ever heard before.  It was the perfect blend of the Michael Jordan meme mixed with Nancy Kerrigan's, WHYYYYs.  It was the sound of my niece giving up hope that anything in this world would ever bring her joy.  And it was all because

I DIDN'T READ THE DIRECTIONS.  

If you recall, this past weekend we had our baby shower.  That freak out has subsided and now I get to figure out how to put some of the gifts together...the gifts with the dreaded phrase, "Some assembly required."

Who knew that my niece's devastation would turn out to be an amazing life lesson.