Open Letter: 15 Months and 3 Weeks
Dear Aves -
I haven’t written an open letter lately because, I dunno, I communicate with you so much now that I feel silly repeating everything I’ve said to you in a letter. But really, how much of what I say to you will you remember? How much will I remember? To be safe, I think I’ll continue.
So Bubba, we had a great time today. I took you to Barnes and Noble to pick up reads for the entire family and while there, we checked out the play area they have on the second floor. It was really cool up there and you went buck wild when I let you loose. Of course you wanted this, and you wanted that, but after I’d just spent $95 on books, I wasn’t trying to swipe my poor card anymore.
There was a Thomas the Tank train set in the play area that you soooo looked like you were just dying to play with, but a couple of kids had already marked their territory so you refused to get within a few feet of the table. You simply stood in the doorway and pitifully observed the frolic.
I couldn’t stand you looking so dejected, and the kids, along with their parents, didn’t look like they were trying to leave anytime soon, so I decided that we would leave.
We walked over to Becker’s (a local parent teacher store) to see if we could buy you some consolation. I mean no, you weren’t crying hysterically or anything. As a matter of fact, you weren’t even crying, but you just looked heartbroken. These things only a mother knows.
We get inside and lo and behold, there’s a Thomas the Tank train set on the same train table as there was in Barnes and Noble! Man, you ran up to that thing as if it was a mountain of blueberries spewing bubbles and sprinkled with pieces of coconut bread surrounded by different-colored binkies (your favorite things in this world). You squealed with delight as you touched each piece and giggled with excitement as you rolled the trains onto the tracks. You were enjoying it so much that I immediately start thinking about how I would explain to daddy yet another toy purchase. This week.
That was until I saw how much the entire thing would cost.
My good lawd! Ok, the table alone costs a buck fifty. And the table of course needs a playboard ($50). Then I peeped how much each toy component costs - just to give you an idea, a train costs about $15. Sets complete with tracks and accessories may be purchased at around $120 each.
So, your consolation easily comes out to about $400. Geez. And to think, you haven’t even started really asking for stuff.
Well, your daddy would’ve very likely killed me had we come home with that train set so we left it right there on the shelf. Not that he doesn’t want you to have nice things - he would give you the world if he could. It’s just that $400 today is not the same as it was 2 years ago. Don’t believe what you might read in your textbook when you’re in school - it’s 2008 and we are in the middle of a recession.
Anyway, I’m actively scouting Craigslist now hoping to get lucky. I’ve emailed a couple of people with comparable train tables and now it’s just wait and see. Hopefully by this weekend, we can have our own train party at home.
Love,
Mommy