Math Lesson

The Great Pumpkin comes to our house. Every night in October...we have a haunted house countdown calendar that marks each day before Halloween. And the Great Pumpkin is very generous...usually only because the Great Pumpkin is also very forgetful. The Great Pumpkin usually buys small trinkets at the dollar store to put in the tiny doors of the house. But the Great Pumpkin this year wrote last night about how stressful and busy life is. SO...there are many times that the Great Pumpkin is standing in front of the haunted house wondering what the heck she is going to stick behind those doors. And sadly, in her forgetfulness, most often the Great Pumpkin gets in her purse and shoves a dollar (or two...there are TWO little girls in this house) into the door and goes to bed feeling like a crap mom (or crap Great Pumpkin in this case.) But, every morning the girls run to the haunted house and fling open the doors to find what the Great Pumpkin brought them over night while they were asleep. One night, while trying to get to bed as quick as she could without turning the lights on, the Great Pumpkin placed two $5 bills in the door by mistake, thinking they were ones. So, in a matter of only 9 days, the girls have accumulated the cutest turkey hair flair pieces ever, gift cards to Chuck E Cheese (that were also found in a drawer and regifted), and a total of $7.00, which goes into piggy banks. The Great Pumpkin's intentions with putting the money in the piggy bank is that the girls will eventually put it in their bank accounts for college, or whatever they decide to do when they grow up. I was informed on our drive home tonight that the money would be used at Toys R Us. We had a discussion about how we need to save our money for our bank accounts. That mommy buys them treats often and is fairly generous (sometimes to the point of spoiling them) when we go to various stores and that the money in their piggy banks needed to be saved for college, or at least their futures. Which brings me to tonight's One More Thing: Mommy...we need to discuss what we talked about earlier. You know how you said that our piggy banks are for our future? Well, I was thinking. You want me to know how to spend my money wisely in the future, don't you? Well, the only way I'm going to be able to know how to do that is for you to help me with that. So, I think we should take my piggy bank money, and count it out. And instead of putting it in the bank for my future, you should take me to Toys R Us and show me how to spend my money. You know, how to make sure I don't spend too much, or try to buy something I don't have enough money for. And don't think that I'm going to Toys R Us to have fun and buy something new. Because I'm not. I'm only going for a math lesson. And a lesson for my future. Amelia: 1 Mommy: 0 I told her I'd think about it...how can you argue with THAT logic. I think God has a great sense of humor. Let's bless this woman with a husband...and then let's bless her with two brilliant children...subtract the daddy from the equation for that she's outnumbered...and sit back and watch :) They definitely keep me thinking...or at least trying to catch up to them with my thinking. And what, is the corny lesson of the night? I'm not 100% sure. But as I think through the conversation of the night, and think about how my six-year-old can run logic laps around me, I do thank God that I am blessed. I am blessed with a little girl who is wise beyond her years. A little girl who thinks for herself, and is not afraid to advocate for her needs. A girl who is willing to debate with mommy in a calm, respectful manner. A little girl who is articulate and strong and knows right from wrong. A girl who can take any topic in life and twist it into a positive. And all of these qualities are amazing in any child. Any mother would be proud to be able to say these things about her child. But, when I look at her six years of life and think about all of the things that she has gone through, and can still have these qualities about her, my heart bursts with pride and joy! She is nothing short of amazing!! And the best thing? She is calm and patient with the three-year-old that lives in our house too. Emerson is learning from her sister. Emerson sees that her sister is smart and talented and resilient, and Emerson wants that too! So, I'm outnumbered...it'll probably be a bigger deal when those two little ones are teenagers conspiring against me. But in the present, I will let them be brilliant and make their points! And when the Great Pumpkin has finished his run this month, we will probably count those piggy banks...and have a splendid day lost in Toys R Us with a math lesson.