Ten Dollars and a Three-year-old Also known as "Savin' it for Later!"

So, here's the scoop.. Will got a card from his Grandma and Grandpa Johnson today for his birthday and it had 10.00 in it. He is just starting to understand the concept of money and how it surely makes the world go round.

So what to do with this new found wonder?... First, he waved it around and showed EVERYONE!!! Me, being the smart wonderful mother that I am, told him that he would probably lose it and he should save it on the fridge until we could go to the store. This is what Will must have heard in his ears... "blah, blah, blah, Will, put the money IN the fridge so it will save for later! blah, blah, blah"

So he marched right over, opened up the fridge, and told me that he was "saving it for later"!! It was the cutest thing ever and if I hadn't watched it all myself, thinking what he must be thinking, it wouldn't have been so great. So, of course, I grabbed my camera.

Then a little while later, I told him it was time to go to the store and use his money. He said "Oh, it is ready??? O.K." and he ran and opened the fridge and grabbed his "ready" money!

This is how the store trip went:

Three-year-old enters store at 8:45pm wearing red dinosaur jammies and fanning face with new 10.00 bill. I steer him towards the recently viewed movies and he finds "Over the Hedge" for 6.95. Good buy son!! Then we head towards the back of the store where they keep the toys. On the way he says, "Wait, hot dogs!!!" and he hustles the other direction, towards the meat isle. I watch as he puts his movie and ten dollar bill on the ground and proceeds to lift the lid on the sample plate of Little Smokies! He proceeds to pick them up one by one and pop them in his mouth... what does he think? it's his birthday or something??!!! Then he gently puts the lid back down, picks up his movie, and his ten dollar bill and follows me again towards the back of the store.

Once in the back I show him some hot wheels and other such wastes of money and he steps on his tip toes and grabs a gun off a hook. " I want a gun!" well, I guess your three so you must be old enough to weild a gun!

He takes his purchases to the counter, pays with his own money and even gets two quarters back!!! He is excited about this- in fact if you caught him before he paid, you probably could have traded those two quarters for his ten dollar bill. Simple trade--everyone is happy! But as it stands, he leaves his purchases and takes his quarters to the gumball machine and proceeds to chew TWO huge gumballs, because he can! Of course he can, he is 3!!! and the first thing he said when he got home and showed his dad his new purchases was "Oh good, now I can shoot Colter!!!" (his best pal!)