Gillian's Spree

Months ago I took Colin to Barnes and Noble one Sunday morning, just the two of us. Gillian was under the weather so she stayed home with Daddy. We spent most of the morning playing with the train table. Surprise, right? But then Colin discovered the selves and shelves of Thomas merchandise. And he found a "track signal" that he could just not resist. He wanted it. OH, how he wanted it. It would COMPLETE him. And his track. And it was $30. THIRTY. Now, I'm not above buying my kids little stuff when we are out and about, but $30 is a bit steep. So I drug him yelling and mad out of the store after his first tantrum about buying something. So fun.

When we got home, we talked it over with Daddy and came up with a plan. Colin had gotten some money from Grammy and Papa for Valentine's Day and that fund would contribute half the money to the signal. BUT, Coin would have to do little chores to earn the rest. I found the signal online for slightly less, so he would have to earn about $11. We made him a little chart and came up with some jobs, like putting his shoes in the cubby when we came home and getting his dirty laundry in the basket before bath. Little stuff. He did really well until he earned about $8. Then he lost interest. In a big way. He went weeks and weeks saying "no thank you" to doing his extra work and not earning any money. Thankfully, the Easter holiday "egg hunt haul" put him over the top and he could get the SIGNAL. Phew. And, really, he does love it.

Anyway, so in the middle of all of this Gillian decides she needs to earn some money too. Ok, that's fine. Same deal: Valentine Treat fund gives her $11 and she earns the other half before she can buy what she wants. I didn't really know exactly WHAT she wanted to buy with her money. She hadn't been asking for anything, so I inquired of her what she was wanting to buy.

Her answer? Jewelry.



Ok then.

Much like Colin she earned about $8 and then lost interest. But, her Easter Egg stash put her over her goal. It took us a few weeks to find time to go out "jewelry shopping," but finally this Sunday we found some time. I decided to make it a bit of a "Mommy and Gillian Date" because, honestly, we are having a rough go of it lately. Too much stubborn between the two of us. We needed some fun together.

So after nap on Sunday, Gillian packed all her money up in her fancy purse, put on her fancy coat, and off we went. My lovely Book Club ladies (who have older daughters) recommended a fantastic accessories store to us, so we had a destination. The very friendly sales lady pointed us to the little girl section and Gillian was in HEAVEN. They had little girl sparkly bracelets, earrings, necklaces, hair bows, purses, scarves, rings....you name it.

We took our time and looked at everything. Twice. And then G made her choices. She found a pretty pink flower bracelet, a pink and purple beaded butterfly necklace, and some pink hair poufs. She made really nice choices. And since they are pink and purple, they will match 80% of her wardrobe! She paid for them herself at the register and immediately put them all on!



She got a lot of attention as we walked around the mall! She IS such a cutie. We grabbed a lemonade to share and rode the escalator quite a few times, and then headed home to the boys. She was excited to show Daddy her bounty.





We had such a nice time. We really need to do it more often. I think it would do both of us good to spend some FUN time with just the two of us!