Welcome Knight and Theo, As IMR has stated, it can't be emphasised enough, to reinforce the idea of not playing with Theo without Mom or Dad present. I commend you on doing all the research and esp reading here before buying one. It is important to read all the Problems, with Pleo too, not just the experiences, etc, the good stuff. I too bought one for my grandson who would have been almost 8 at the time, and I decided Pleo was too advanced for the kind of play a 8 year old boy would want, and bought him the much more hardy, D-REx, which is controlled by Remote control. I got to keep my Pleo Nova, and we are both happy.
The only two things I would stress have to do with two Pleo concerns, one is the skin, which I only found out after about 2-3 months of keeping her n the WRONG SLEEPING POSITION. I thought it was Natural and OK to let Nova sleep in the sleeping postion she fell asleep in and then I would remove her battery to charge it. This I have since found out is very bad and detrimental to Pleo skin, as it stretches the neck esp into unnatural positions which can lead to small tears or splits.( Nova had a small tear on the neck seam replaced because of this.) Worse by far, and sometimes with no warning, is the neck which can break or become " droopy" with no warnings. :(No matter how careful, Pleo does not have to suffer a fall to have this happen, though the one thing you can watch out for is that Pleo does not wander accidentally into a corner or attempt a " headstand", as they sometimes do this and suffer broken neck cables all on their own.This has happened to Nova as well as what appears to be a broken server in her front leg as it sometimes gives way, and it broke my heart.( I am no kid either.
) Then when this happend to Nova, I kept thinking how could I have prevented this, feeling very guilty, like a parent who let their child, pet cat, etc, get hurt) Believe me, a lot of us do tend to think of our Pleos as " having feelings' and it hurts to see them hurt or out of commission.) By supervising your daughter and her Play time very carefully and also stressing that Theo is a "BABY', and he needs all the special care a baby needs, You are allowing your daughter to treat hm a lot more carefully then she would with just a regular " toy", Unlike a real baby, you may have to explain to her that Theo has very special skin that can not get wet like most babies. You may also want to let your daughter help pick out special outfits or clothes that can help protect Theo's delicate skin and also define his personality.
I think you are off to a great start and have really done your homework on Pleos. Congratulations, and we are looking forward to seeing your first photos of Theo.
RedwoodsMama and MS. Nova
