Gumball Machine

Missing my little Abe-ster today... (he is in Illinois this week!)

This past weekend we met Nichole and Tinashe at a big rummage sale.  When we got there, I gave Abe a dollar and told him to keep his eyes out for something he would like to get with his money. 

It was so much fun to watch him hunt for the perfect item!  He carefully inspected many, many toys.  He asked me how a lot of things worked, what they were, etc., and while he thought a lot of things were neat, there wasn't really anything he wanted to buy.  He was especially interested in a huge fire engine, but it cost $3.50, so we talked about how that wasn't in his budget.  He seemed to understand and moved on. 

Finally, toward the end, he landed upon a gumball machine.  And that was it.  That was what he wanted.  I couldn't figure out how it worked, so I encouraged him to think about going back to one of the previous tables we had seen that had some neat things, but he insisted.  He said he had already looked there and this was what he wanted.  So, I hunted down someone to figure out how and if the machine actually worked.  Lo and behold, after the third person looked at it, we figured it out!  So, we got the gumball machine.  Abe unzipped his coat pocket, pulled out his dollar, and handed it to the lady behind the table.  She gave him 50 cents change, he told her "Thank You", and he walked away with a grin on his face and a gumball machine in his hands.

He jabbered all the way home about how excited he was and how he wondered if "Daddy will like what I picked"!!

We took it home and cleaned it up, and later that afternoon, we went down to a little candy shop along North Avenue.  We got a scoop of gumballs (which cost $1.85--more than the 50 cents he had left!!), but I was just as excited to get them for him as he was to get them, too!  It's amazing to me how I can receive so much joy through seeing joy in my children.  It is an amazing gift!

With his prized purchase!