My son cannot keep a secret. I realize he is four, but sometimes I neglect to think about the things he is not developmentally ready to do yet. This means that last night he told his Dada (I'm not sure why he still calls his Daddy Dada, but he does. It's just another one of his quirks.), "We're getting you 'igh sabers for yours birthday." Tony looked at me, and I just smiled. There was no use denying it because he also doesn't lie.
I am impressed he actually kept it a secret as long as he did because we had found them several weeks ago when we went into Toys R Us to pick out the T-Rex he wanted to buy with his potty training money. When he saw them, I immediately thought they would be a great toy for the two of them to play with. Tony, like all boys who grew up in the 70s and 80s, loves Star Wars, and he has already begun to talk up the movies with Bryce. We talked about getting them for Tony for his birthday, but I did not buy them because I knew they would never stay hidden. Today, when I picked him up from school, we headed over to Toys R Us. The plan was to grab lunch, get the light sabers, and head to Timothy Elementary for speech. We almost didn't make it to speech.
When we got to Toys R Us, he told me he wanted to use Two's money to pay for the light sabers. My daddy had given him one of those electronic cups that hold change the last time we were in Covington. It was full of change, and he told Bryce to buy something for himself and Samantha. My plan had been to count it out and trade it in for cash before we spent it. In all of the confusion of going back to work, I haven't made it to that particular task. When Bryce said, "I will use Two's money," I cringed, but I also knew it would save me some money as well. I reached down to get the cup from under his seat and realized every last bit of the change was in the back floorboard. I'm not sure when it spilled, but it was everywhere. Initially, I wanted to leave it until later because I was terrified we would be late for speech, but he was looking at me so earnestly that I knew I was going to pick up the change. I know I'm a sucker for the kid, but he was so excited about sharing with his daddy that I couldn't refuse. I scraped out all of the change and began putting it into the top of the cup thinking that if it counted I would know how much I had in order to expedite the process of paying with a bunch of change. The process was going slowly but steadily. Bryce was picking up the occasional penny that would drop onto the asphalt. Luckily, the Athens Toys R Us is not a high traffic area at 1:2o p.m. on a March Friday afternoon. We were plugging along, and I had gotten about seven dollars into the cup when Bryce discovered the little black button on the top of the cup. His fingers reached out and pressed the button, and I suddenly saw my numbers switch to zero. I groaned as he looked at me and said, "I pressed that button." I didn't say a word as I unscrewed the lid and scraped the rest of the changed into the cup.
As we picked out the light sabers and a zebra for Samantha, I secretly prayed he would change his mind about wanting to use the change because I knew I was going to have to go through the embarrassment of counting out a bunch of change. Unfortunately, he was still set on paying using the change, so I counted out $26.50 in quarters, nickels, and dimes plus $0.50 in pennies. The rest of the total I put on my card. At this point, I knew we were going to be late for speech, but then the incredibly patient cashier says, "Ma'am, I need to see your ID." The only problem was that I didn't have my ID with me in the store. I had my credit card in my pocket from buying lunch, and my ID was with my wallet in the car. I didn't even argue, but I did think to myself, "I am in Toys R Us with two kids buying two light sabers with $27 in change, and now you want to see my ID." I simply left the change and took the kids back to the car to retrieve my license. We got out of Toys R Us with five minutes to spare, and it was worth every minute when Tony got his light sabers tonight.
So far, I think everyone in the family has played with them, and I envision lots of fun from them in the future. I just hope Tony and Bryce don't destroy my house.
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