The Ties That Bind: November 2011

Monday, November 21, 2011

Hungry piggy?

I've been talking with Josie about clearing out some of her toys in order to make room.for the onslaught of gifts she is certain to receive for Christmas. She was not interested in giving up anything princess related and certainly was not about to give up any one of the hundreds of books that she has, but she did pleasantly agree to give up a few things while adamantly pointing out what she'd like to take their place. Turns out that this kid has a pretty detailed wish list this year!

I packed some things away for the garage sale next spring and decided one of them might make a good Craigslist item and could be a perfect gift for another little girl. Turns out I was right. Lots of calls and e-mails later I completed the sale late this afternoon and received a nice little sum of money in return. Cha-ching!

Fast forward 3 hours and picture me walking to the spot where I placed the money this afternoon. Any guesses what I found? Yep- nothing! Now this is not entirely unheard of with a young child in the house. I recall a night shortly before Halloween that I couldn't located the remote to turn off the Halloween lights and needed to "think like Josie" before finding them hidden in a set of nesting boxes. I also misplaced my iTouch a few months ago and magically found it under Josie's pillow. For the life of me I just can't figure out how in the world it got there!

So rather than panicking I simply called Josie into the room and asked if she knew anything about the money that was sitting on the table. She happily smiled and said she took the "pretend money" and used it to buy things. I was somewhat relieved with this response because I halfway figured she put it in her piggy bank (we're always hearing about her piggy's hungry tummy) and was not looking forward to cracking that thing open to get my money back! It was a this point that you could see a look of fear come over Josie's face. She explained that she put the money in her purse but had no idea which purse and where it might be. She wandered aimlessly for about 15 minutes before finally remembering that she last used her purse to buy groceries and that the money might be in the cash register. Thankfully it was pretend groceries paid for with (my) pretend money.

Lesson learned- keep Josie's piggy full and don't leave money anywhere in sight!

A Happy Birthday Indeed!

In honor of Ted's birthday (and no doubt an early birthday present for me) Springsteen announced a 2012 tour! Time to start preparing for a marathon in the pit! Sometime next year he'll be taking a request from us.