Thomas Circus Train
Wow, I can't believe it's been 3 months since I've posted on Michael's blog. Well, I guess it's not a bad thing ... been too busy being a father and a husband to write about it.
Michael is very articulate and can be extremely polite and convincing when he puts his mind to it.
This evening I took him to Barnes & Noble. I told him upfront that I would buy him either a train (one of the Thomas Wooden Railway trains for his traintable) or a book. I told him he could pick.
In the car, he said ... "mmmm book" when I asked him. He loves books. I was quite pleased he wanted a book instead of a toy. However, when we got there, we looked at books, read a few together, but didn't really settle upon one he wanted to "buy take home".
I started thinking we'd be better off getting a toy, since he can (and does) always get a lot of books at the library. He's gotten accustomed to cycling through books from the library. Plus, the other cool thing about library books is they have a self-checkout and he loves checking out books. They use a sensor, so he plops the book on there and it *BING* checks the book out to us.
Soon, his eye wandered to Thomas Wooden Railway Circus Train. He said "play red one". There are 3 inside. I told him that he can't open it at the store since we didn't buy it. So he said "buy red one".
I sighed and explained "We can't just buy the red one, we have to buy the whole thing. The whole thing is too expensive." Ant it was ... $30. Even with my 30% off coupon, that's $21.
We went off to read another book and wandered around a bit, and out of the blue, he very timidly and politely said "buy whole thing." I asked him "buy what?", and he clarified "buy whole thing take home." He's very good at explaining in nearly full sentences and making himself understood.
I was very impressed, (and I did promise him that I would buy him something, and I'd let him pick), so I let him buy it. He carried it around the store, through the checkout line, and politely handed it to the cashier, who rang it up, walked out from behind the counter, and handed it to him in a bag. I paid for it, and he held my hand and in his other hand proudly carried his new train out of the store.
I really think if I would have said "no, that's too expensive," he would have been okay with it and not thrown a tantrum. He's very good about material things ... he's grateful for what he gets and I really can't think of an instance where he demanded something at a store and threw a tantrum.
I do think I overpaid for the train, it was one of the more expensive ones, and didn't seem like it took them all that much wood to carve. Felt like it wasn't the best value / dollar.
But that's just the engineer in me ... it made Michael's evening, so I guess that's what counts.
Michael is very articulate and can be extremely polite and convincing when he puts his mind to it.
This evening I took him to Barnes & Noble. I told him upfront that I would buy him either a train (one of the Thomas Wooden Railway trains for his traintable) or a book. I told him he could pick.
In the car, he said ... "mmmm book" when I asked him. He loves books. I was quite pleased he wanted a book instead of a toy. However, when we got there, we looked at books, read a few together, but didn't really settle upon one he wanted to "buy take home".
I started thinking we'd be better off getting a toy, since he can (and does) always get a lot of books at the library. He's gotten accustomed to cycling through books from the library. Plus, the other cool thing about library books is they have a self-checkout and he loves checking out books. They use a sensor, so he plops the book on there and it *BING* checks the book out to us.
Soon, his eye wandered to Thomas Wooden Railway Circus Train. He said "play red one". There are 3 inside. I told him that he can't open it at the store since we didn't buy it. So he said "buy red one".
I sighed and explained "We can't just buy the red one, we have to buy the whole thing. The whole thing is too expensive." Ant it was ... $30. Even with my 30% off coupon, that's $21.
We went off to read another book and wandered around a bit, and out of the blue, he very timidly and politely said "buy whole thing." I asked him "buy what?", and he clarified "buy whole thing take home." He's very good at explaining in nearly full sentences and making himself understood.
I was very impressed, (and I did promise him that I would buy him something, and I'd let him pick), so I let him buy it. He carried it around the store, through the checkout line, and politely handed it to the cashier, who rang it up, walked out from behind the counter, and handed it to him in a bag. I paid for it, and he held my hand and in his other hand proudly carried his new train out of the store.
I really think if I would have said "no, that's too expensive," he would have been okay with it and not thrown a tantrum. He's very good about material things ... he's grateful for what he gets and I really can't think of an instance where he demanded something at a store and threw a tantrum.
I do think I overpaid for the train, it was one of the more expensive ones, and didn't seem like it took them all that much wood to carve. Felt like it wasn't the best value / dollar.
But that's just the engineer in me ... it made Michael's evening, so I guess that's what counts.
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