I just had to write this story down. so, Luke came to his father and I one evening with a burning desire in his little 6 year old heart. He saw that Anna (his sister for all intents and purposes) had a "Micky Club House" watch on her wrist and he wanted one just like it. "But how do I get it?" he asked. We talked about finding out where she had gotten it from and then had our first discussion about money. Where does it come from? How do you earn it? We suggested that if he helped his brother and sisters on the dishes, everytime he would recieved a quarter. After he found out from Anna that the watch had come from the Dollar Store we had another meeting about how many quarters he would need to earn. Four quarters equal a dollar and one more for tax.
He faithfully did the dishes with his siblings. He would grab them, exhuberantly let them know it was time to do the dishes, and then sings or keep a running conversation with them about octopuses, skeletons, tigers or any other topic that popped into his head. When he was finished he would run and ask us for his quarter. He slowly collected them in his little fuzzy dark green suede covered tithing box he had recieved at church a few months ago.
Finally, the day of days arrived and we set the time to go to the Dollar Store. I had noticed he didn't have a wallet, so I mentioned that I would get him one at the Dollar Store so that he wouldn't have to extract his coins from his pocket and have them fall all over the floor.
When we were inside we scoured the toys aisles for the much earned watched. We didn't have any luck. Luke was anxiously repeating, "Where could that watch be?" in his loud carrying voice. I'm sure everyone in the store throught we had lost a very important watch with the urgent tone in his voice. Jacob, finally found them and came over to us and told us where they were and we ran over to see. When Luke looked at the watches his face fell, because he had wanted a Spiderman watch. With a little further searching the exact Spiderman watch was found. Now his face turned into the brightest smile I have ever seen, and then his mind remembered a wallet that I had promised to buy him. Instead of the normal flip wallet we found a small camera case with a zipper and a lanyard - perfect for a 6 year old.
With his two items retrieved he was ready to depart. But his mom still needed to go up and down the asiles to buy some other items. So with Luke trailing behind me I would put candy into my cart and he would pull it out and say, "We don't need this."
"But, I want it and need it." I would whine. Then I looked up and saw an elderly lady snickering at us. Then I realized how this must appear to her. Our roles were reversed. I'm glad that he takes after all true men who hate shopping and just go in to get the one or two things that they need and then they want to leave. It was just one of those memorably funny experiences that I am blessed to have daily.
Thanks Luke - Your Mom
