buying revelation

i've learned a lot about my kids in the last few days...by taking them to stores and letting them shop.

i'm not a big shopper, so when i go into a store, or occasionally a mall, i go and buy what i need and i'm out. no lallygagging. on friday i had to go into a department store to get what i needed. we entered the store at the women's shoe section. alaythia walked in, baby doll in hand, got half way through, stopped in her tracks and proclaimed, 'whooooaaaaa, shoes!'

now, i've known about alaythia's love for shoes for some time, so it wasn't a huge revlation, but the DEPTHS of her love for shoes has surprised me. a couple days later we went into a shoe store on a hunt for summer shoes for the kids. she ran in, found her area and immediately went to looking. she found the pinkest, glitteriest, princess shoes she could find and brought them over to me. right size and all. as i was trying shoes on isaiah she kept saying, 'my turn mama! my turn mama!' oh how i wish i could have bought them for her. but before you feel bad, she was already wearing pink glittery shoes, just a lighter shade of pink. in a conversation she had with grandma a couple days earlier, she put on her 'asking' voice and asked for more shoes. even though grandma sent 3 pairs for her birthday. grandma said they might have to go shoe shopping when she comes.

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this week in the mail, isaiah and alaythia's great-aunt lydia sent them presents. along with their gifts, inside each card was a $5 bill. first time they've recieved money like that (i think). isaiah was astonished and i said, 'isaiah, you can use this to buy whatever you want.' he quickly said, 'i'm going to the dollar store and buying 5 swords!' pretty good idea. so i decided to take them to the dollar store and let them pick out whatever they want. i was determined not to influence them, but to watch them and let them decide what they wanted.

i let them run in the store first, and i didn't stop them. isaiah ran right to the toys and found swords and guns. alaythia hung back and just watched. in the end isaiah came out with a gun that shoots balls, 2 swords and 2 street hokey sticks. he was very careful to get two because he wanted to be able to play with daddy. interesting.

alaythia found the FREAKIEST looking baby dolls and put as many as she could in her arms. oh how i wanted to discourage her, but i didn't. ended up she put all back but two. it took her longer to figure out what she wanted. she walked around the store, took stock and came back to what she liked. she ended up with two baby dolls, one of those gross slimy tentical balls (she spent the most time picking this out), a minney and daisy head band and a huge pinwheel in a the shape of a flower. i did not direct her, encourage or discourage her at all.

i LOVED watching them. studying them as they tried to decide. it turned out to be really interesting for me as they got things i never thought they would have. i've decided we should make this a tradition, try it every so often.

(thanks aunt lydia for your thoughtfulness, the kids and i really enjoyed it!)