The Purchase

When we went to Diddams to shop for cake toppers for Samuel's and Shira's birthday cakes, Samuel saw a toy that he wanted - a stomp rocket.  He asked if we could buy it.  I informed him that he could save his allowance for it.  He wanted to know how long he would have to save for.  I told him that he should have enough after his first week of summer camp.

So here we are, at the end of the first week of summer camp.  The promised date has arrived.  He begs Steve for his allowance a day early (Friday instead of Saturday).  When I walk in the door from my morning swim, I am bombarded by a five year old who wants to know if he has enough money and if we can go to the store TODAY to buy the somewhat patiently awaited stomp rocket.

To be honest, I have no clue if he has enough money.  I did a rough calculation at the time, and I no longer have any idea how much that stomp rocket cost.  We checked out Amazon, and he can afford it there, but only if we buy something else for super saver shipping.

So after our playdate this morning, and after I confirm with Shira that she really isn't going to take a nap today, we head to the bank to clean out Samuel's account, take the wooden Pinocchio bank with us, and set out to Diddams, at which point Shira announces that she's very tired and needs a nap.

Too late to turn back now, Samuel might never forgive me.  So we forged on, only to find that the particular stomp rocket (really, he already knows which ones are good and which ones aren't?  brand loyalty starts early) that he wants is about $5 out of his price range.  The same amount as Amazon if we don't have super saver shipping.

So off to Target.  Samuel saved his allowance for weeks, he has a goal for himself.  And we get to Target and they don't have the stomp rocket he wants and it's too expensive anyway.  He doesn't pitch a fit. Instead, he suggested that we go back to the Lego aisle as there were some items there he had his eye on.  Not once did he ask if I would buy him something.  Not once did he complain that he didn't have enough money to get what he wanted.

He took an enormous amount of pleasure simply looking at the different options that were available and deciding which item he wanted.  We looked at Lego and perused the sports aisles.  We made an emergency call to Steve to find out if the Lego pieces from the Cars movie were the "good guys" or "bad guys".  There were a few of items just out of Samuel's price range; I offered to loan him a couple of dollars.  He declined.  He did not want to be in debt to me.  We were in Target for an hour.  We even bought a baseball batting helmet and returned it without leaving the store.  He finally settled on two water squirters (one for him and one for Shira or a friend) and some dive toys for swimming.

We had such a good time.  Can I take any credit for how fantastic he is, or do I just get to take credit for the yucky stuff?