Famous Day

June 26, 2013

It's Famous Day! As per Brian standard protocol we arrived bright and early at the commercial shoot. 45 minutes early to be exact. Good thing there was an outdoor playground to keep Ben and Maddie Mae happy while we waited for go time.

Quality Daddy Time

There has been a pink VHS tape on the shelf in my room since we unpacked last April. No label. No clues. Today I finally took it downstairs to see what exactly it was. To my delight, and Ben, Maddie and Gina, it was a video recording of one of Brian's first paid gigs. It was a birthday party for the daughter of a friend and coworker. Maddie was instantly glued to the screen. I was ready to take it out, label it and put it away. It was obvious though that this magic show had a recorded audience as well as a live one. So Maddie is spending some quality time with daddy even though dad is actually at work.

Money, Money, Money!

All my kids LOVE money. Ben has been getting an allowance for about two years. He understands how to pay tithing and how much has to be put in his savings account and how much he gets to keep. He can read a price tag in the store and budget his cash to buy what he wants and know how much is going to be left over or if he can’t afford the thing he wants. Sometimes he even has the self-control to save up for a bigger item he wants to get.

Maddie started getting allowance this month. She LOVES to sit and sort her money out. She loves to count and put the right number of ten cent coins on the paper in the predrawn holes (doubt they are called dimes, but I don’t know what to call them).

Jake loves to hold as many coins in his chubby little hands as he possibly can. He walks around saying, “Dis one my money? Dis one MY money.” He scours the floor for lost coins and collects them to put in his pockets. I informed the kids that now that both of them are getting allowance we won’t be able to know if the money is his or hers anymore. Therefore, all money left out is Mom’s money. Maybe we’ll make it Jake’s money. When we pay out allowance to the big kids and then figure tithing and things I have to make sure to have lots of extra change to keep Jacob occupied placing it on colored paper all by himself.

Jake is also totally tuned into the fact that money is used for magic tricks and at our house it always is. Brian frequently does coin tricks for any visitors we may have as well as our own kids. Jacob loves to do magic shows just like dad. He'll grab a coin and say, "Abba abba hokus hokus" instead of "abra cadabra, hokus pokus." Then he will put the coin to the left hand and open the right one saying, "not in this one." Then he shifts the coin in his hands right in front of you and smiles as he shows you the other hand is now empty with total confidence that he has just accomplished the most amazing magic trick I have ever seen. It melts my heart.