Miscellany

Since the Obama-holding-babies website is bound to slow down now, here's another website for your enjoyment.

And hey, guess how I'm going to be celebrating Veterans Day? By holding Dutch's hand while she gets a bunch of cavities filled at 8 AM. And then if that goes well, I think I'm going to take her on an outing and buy her this, breaking my policy of never getting her any gifts beyond the parameters of birthday and holiday, because:

1. cavities suck and I always feel like I should get a reward when I have a filling,
2. she has just discovered the wonders of Playmobil,
3. cavities really suck, and
   
4. she's totally stressed out about the whole thing - poor kid.

Anyway, Playmobil. The new obsession. She was given a Playmobil gift on Saturday, and now she wants to buy every single Playmobil item IN THE WORLD. I took her to a toystore yesterday with her $6.07 in saved-up spending money, and she got pretty wild-eyed. What with all the Playmobil stuff, the baby dolls with pacifiers, and the little model horses, she almost passed out. This did, however, lead to the sort of Model Parenting conversation about Budgeting that I never expected to actually have, in which we discussed how Cook and I have to make decisions like this,* and it's just really hard. At one point she semi-wailed "Mommy, I can't afford ANYTHING I want!!!!!!!" and I said something sensible and gentle, and I didn't say "Welcome to life, honey!" which I think was very good of me. And she didn't freak out, which I think was very good of her.


* Which to buy? The baby bottle with disappearing "milk"? The fairy princess Playmobil kit? The doctor-with-premature-baby Playmobil kit? Don't you struggle with things like this everyday?