William is on day 3 of his antibiotic for an ear infection; he has been cranky. Crazy cranky. The fit throwing, flesh biting, "no" screaming, back arching kind of cranky. In general, he is a super mellow, easy going boy. Maybe I've not been appreciating his sweet nature as much as I should. I hope these antibiotics work their magic, I'm ready for my chilled out sweet boy to come back.
On top of that, Henry has been begging for a new toy. Where have I failed him that he begs, only weeks after Christmas to have something, just anything "new"? I finally decided, partially to save my sanity and get me out of this house, that I would take him to the Dollar store and let him have his pick of any 1 item in the whole store, with no guidance or direction from me. But only if he was willing to go through his toys first and pick out five things to donate. I kind of thought he would change his mind here, but he didn't. He cheerfully picked through his toys and chose 5 things to give. At first they were chintzy little things; an old torn magazine, a bouncy ball, a broken matchbox car. I made him go back through and find things that were nice for other boys and girls to have. Not broken, easy things to give away (a dollar store toy is worth far more than that. Ha!) He put them into a bag and we piled into the van (yay, we left the house!) and drove to the mission to drop them off. He got out of the car with me and handed them to a man doing the receiving.
Then he chose this:
Scary? I think so. It's not broken yet, but I'm sure it will be soon. He's only allowed to fight pretend bad guys with it, too.
Browsing the aisles at the dollar store was actually kind of relaxing for me, too. It's fun that everything is just a dollar. I bought a few candles, some goodies for the boys to occupy them during a wedding we're going to tomorrow and William chose a toy dinosaur.
On our way home we stopped at Blockbuster. The kids movies are 99 cents and you can keep them for 7 days. I let the boys each choose one with lots of guidance.
Now it's naptime. Deep sigh of relief. I'm ready to go fire up my Keurig and relax with a cup of coffee.
Winter! When will you end?
Oh and are the formula companies trying to drop subtle hints at me? I just got my second free box of infant formula in the mail this week. Anyone need it? I assure you that we do not. No matter what the formula companies say!
6 comments:
Oh my word! We did this last Friday! After I picked Gabe up from school I told them we were going to the dollar store and they could pick out one thing...and he had that sword in his hand! But he settled on a little water game, and Caleb got a shooter gun that shoots little helicopters into the air.
How funny! You know what they say about great minds!
I will say the freedom to choose almost paralyzed Gabe with indecision. He started getting sad because he just "couldn't decide what he liked best." The pressure!
But, I LOVE the idea of picking out things to give first. Good thinking!
Love you guys and have a good weekend!
Sara
Hope William is feeling better. But it sounds like you had a great plan to get out of the house. I also like the give away idea. We love you guys.
Sandi
I too love the give away idea! Wish I had done that with my girls when they were little! Hope William is feeling better soon! I'm ready for spring too! Love, Ruth
Christina,
My sister is due in July, so I'm sure she would love the free formula if you still have it.
Christina, We have all been there! I love that he had to donate before getting. I am that way with the girls. Pre-Birthday and Christmas we must donate to "make room" for the new. Sometimes I feel like maybe I am being to harsh, but we have so much and I SO want them to understand it's not all about "give me, give me" they are blessed more than they realize, and at 4 and 2 I suppose they shouldn't be expected to fully "realize" but as their neurotic mother it's something that stresses me :)
Winter blues gets us all no matter our age! Hang in there spring is surely to get here....eventually:)
Christina,
You taught Henry such a wonderful lesson. I love that idea of donating five to make room for a new one. He'll remember this simple gesture from childhood and will have a generous spirit the rest of his life. Thank you for reminding me to use these every day moments.
I'm ready for winter to be over too. Why don't we all just move someplace warm? Let's do a family and friends relocation!
Love you!
Erica
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