Good ol' George

The other night, Brayden was up (past his bedtime, but I was allowing it) and just hanging out with me. He had helped me do various chores that day and sometimes I give him a bit of my spare change for doing the chores, to put in his large crayon bank.  I was straightening up my purse and decided to give him a dollar bill and see what he thought of it. I was really surprised to see his total excitement at it and at first, his eyes went wide and he just kept saying "Thank You Mom!" in the most sincerely appreciative and excited voice imaginable, so I took that he understood a dollar was more than just change. Then I sat and explained that it was one dollar and we talked about George Washington being on the dollar, and for a few minutes he talked about "George Warshingten on ONE dollar" then somehow it got turned into "Mommy gave me fifty dollars" "George Warshingten on FIFTY dollars" which was adorable as well. Then it was time for real bed time and we went upstairs and I helped him fit the dollar into his bank. It was cute that he was still chatting with me about it as I put him to bed. Then the next morning when he got up I decided to see if he remembered. I asked him (I think my exact words were) "Where's your dollar?" And Brayden said "George is in the Crayon" it was SO cute!



Ok, story two of George (note, I dont usually give Brayden dollar bills and these are the only two he has in his bank at the moment) Yesterday, the kids and I went for a long walk and stopped at the park to play in the river and at the park. I decided to do an impromptu treasure hunt for Brayden and hide a dollar bill somewhere on the play structure (he was the only kid at the park) for him to hunt for. I had to move it a couple times because he just wasn't seeing it, and then finally, found it in one of the steering wheels. I made a big deal about him finding the treasure and he was very excited. Then I told him to put it in his pocket because we had to get going since Paytin was fussy. Brayden then started to put the dollar back into the steering wheel. I asked him what he was doing and he replied" It's not mine. It's friend's George." (side note, Brayden calls everyone his friends, like pictures of people, people themselves, etc, they are all friends) So, what Brayden was telling me, while shaking his head and putting it back, was that it wasn't his dollar so he shouldn't take it, he assumed it belonged to somebody else. I was actually REALLY surprised to see that train of thought go through his mind, and you could see he wanted to keep the dollar but it didn't seem right in his mind. He explained it to me again that it wasn't his dollar and someone left it. I then decided it was a teachable moment that was more important then a "treasure hunt" and explained that Mommy had hid the dollar for him to find, so he could in fact keep it and put it in his pocket. He seemed satisfied with that answer and put the dollar in his pocket :) So cute!