Planning for the Future

The children are planning for the future, as can be seen by the following stories.

The toddler has been dropping food on the floor for a while. We assumed that was just what toddlers do. Actually, he's been stockpiling supplies for later consumption, as if he was practicing for the inevitable zombie apocalypse. We discovered him harvesting the other day.

"Please don't sweep the floor, daddy!"

He took this storage plan to a new and unexpected level at breakfast when he played at putting the lid back on the gallon milk container. He grabbed some Cheerios from the table and put them into the three-quarters full milk jug. We couldn't figure out how to get them out, so we left them there. When he woke up from his morning nap, I poured him a bottle of milk from the gallon container. Amazingly, the floating Cheerios poured right into his bottle. Then I had the problem of how to get them out of his bottle without throwing away the milk. Then it hit me. I kept filling the bottle until the floating cereal was right by the top of the bottle. A quick scoop with a spoon and all was well with the world. Next time (hopefully there won't be one) I will pour the gallon of milk into another, wide-mouthed container until the foreign objects come out. I will then remove the objects and pour the milk back in.

My daughter hit a new milestone by losing her first tooth at age six. She was very excited to get money from the tooth fairy. She is old enough that she asked if I was the tooth fairy. When I demurred, she asked if mommy was the tooth fairy. I said mommy was definitely not since she already had a job.

"Look, cold hard cash!"

She put the tooth in an envelope since it was so small. The next morning she found some money under her pillow. The money has gone into a savings account, which was her own idea! So she'll have money for the future as long as the future is not the inevitable zombie apocalypse.

So either way, my kids have it covered.

Jacob Loses a Tooth

Jacob's loose tooth had finally fallen out! After a couple of days of nervous anticipation, his tooth came free just before we went to a friend's house for dinner.

Not quite excited yet about losing the tooth

In Mommy's hand

Jacob had been very nervous about the tooth coming out, probably because his teacher at the last school had a problem with one of her teeth and she couldn't talk for a while. Jacob feared the same fate for himself. After it came out, he said that it hurt and he didn't want to eat dinner. We convinced him that it would feel better with a cold drink and maybe a little medicine. After ten minutes of talking about it, he became distracted and didn't feel the pain any more (he never took a drink or any medicine). By the time we made it to dinner, he was ready to brag about the missing tooth and to show off the hole in his mouth.

At bed time he put the tooth under his pillow for the tooth fairy. He was hoping the fairy would come and give him a new tooth to replace the old one. We eventually convinced him that was not her job. The family who invited us to dinner had a book about the tooth fairy where a boy loses a tooth and his jealous sister paints a corn kernel white so she can get a treat as well. They are both whisked off by the tooth fairy to tooth-fairy land to see the fate of lost teeth. The forgery is discovered by the tooth-cleaning robots in the land. The children almost get tossed in jail but escape in the nick of time. Jacob liked the book because it had robots in it. He showed that part to Mommy before we sat down to eat.

After he fell asleep, my wife slipped a pound coin under his pillow. Kids in England have it pretty good. When I was a kid, the best we ever got was a quarter. Too bad we don't have any American money left! I hope he spends it on something good. Probably he'll spend it on something robotic.

When that tooth first came seems like ages ago...how can it be less than five years?

First tooth in, first tooth out!

Close up to show the tooth

At least Lucy has shown no signs of jealousy. She can wait for her tooth to come out naturally, just like Jacob.