Children Say the Darndest Things!

The other day I was grocery shopping with the whole family and my DS realized that every kind of food item in the store suddenly had Spiderman plastered all over the boxes. So now he wanted everything...the cheese crackers, cereals, everything! After the hundredth question of "can we get this?", I finally stopped and took the box down for him to study it. I showed him that it was the same box we had at home, but now there was a fancy picture of Spiderman on the front. Then we flipped it over and saw that there was no toy hidden inside, no special shapes---just a picture on the box. Then we hit the dairy case and he saw more fancy pictures and he said (I swear), "Momma, it's not nice of them to make me want all these things just b/c Spiderman's picture is on the box."

Now as a mother I think advertisers should be required to put their fancy pictures on an equal number of vegetables and fruits as useless snack foods. Wouldn't that be new? I can see it now...tantrums in the aisles as kids beg 'please let me have the radishes Mommy!!!' Farmers are always needing subsidies so why don't we make the most prolific advertising agencies take on some farms pro-bono? I know why---b/c then the useless crap on the cookie/candy/chip aisles would get stale and moldy and big business would get a tad upset.

In the same mode, yesterday my DD pulled a bag of diapers off the counter in excitement b/c I had finally bought a pair with Dora the Explorer on them. I thought the pictures might entice her to move on to the pull-up kind and boy did it! She raced me upstairs to get them on her little hynie. She even flashed them to her Daddy when he got home later.

Anyway so this thought led me to a new one, unrelated to food (imagine that). I have challenged myself to start taking a hard look at our buying impulses. How often do I fall for a pretty package when what is inside the box is exactly the same as what I already have at home? I bet I will be surprised. So if you come across a good example in your life, let me know so I won't feel so alone ;o)

What a hoot!

Ok, I know a 1 yr old has no idea what is going on half the time really, but I have to brag that my DD just put little fisher price baby Jesus from the Nativity set into her much larger scale grocery buggy to give Jesus a ride. She unloaded the whole buggy just to give him a stroll around the house all by himself. Maybe this mother is delirious but I'd like to believe Sunday School is really making a big impact already!

And in our family tradition my DS is already pouring over the latest learning toy catalog circling everything he'd like for his birthday this year. I have such fond memories of my little brother pouring over the Sears Christmas catalog for months refining his list. He was methodical about it at a very young age. He'd spend months weighing the positive and negatives of each possibility. So while I don't worry about DS's list until about two weeks before his birthday, I like to take note of the few items that always make the cut.

Yesterday I also talked to DS about getting rid of some stamp sets so we would have more room for some new sets. It took some talking out for him to understand completely but after a few minutes, he was ready to give up all MY sets to ensure he will be able to get all the new sets he's coveting. So nice of him, right?

Another Man's Trash

My toddler threw away a cup today because it was empty. I know she's fascinated with the tall shiny trash can in the kitchen, but really! So I guess the old adage is true about one man's trash being another man's treasure. I just wish DD wouldn't always lean towards the trash part. I hate digging through the garbage!

Some days I look around my house and think we could throw away more than 50% of our STUFF and we'd probably be happier, but I come from a long line of pack rats and just can't bring myself to do it. I gather up unused toys fairly regularly but then I hardly ever remember to drop them off at Goodwill. The bags become silent inhabitants of the garage, collecting dust and draining my energy every time I see them. I'm constantly getting all gung-ho about organizing and purging, and then normally everything sits in giant piles for ages waiting for me to finally remember to haul it away. I would be much better off if I set up pre-planned pick-ups but I just never manage to work that out. (One bad rain experience to blame for that, I guess.) Excuses, excuses, I know. I want to get better, I really do.

I want to set a good example and overall I think children are WAY more giving than most adults. Maybe I should take a page from them and really declutter our lives. I guess I always feel this way when the laundry gets out of control. I hate having piles and piles of laundry all over the place. It really doesn't matter if it is clean or dirty, just piles that aren't in their proper place drive me bats! I'm so easily distracted, yikes! Gotta work on that.

So in an attempt to pull myself out of this unorganized funk, I have started stalking some well organized online ladies. I hope to learn their secrets and pull myself out of this funk for good! Or at least find some new pretty baskets to hide all my junk. After all it is all about the pretty baskets, right?