Parker had some money left over from the twenty dollars someone gave him for his birthday almost a year ago. Parker turns five in on Wednesday. We cashed the twenty dollars in singles so that Parker could count the money himself to make his purchases. A couple of weeks ago he still had twelve dollars left, mostly because we could never remember to take the money with us anywhere.
I took the boys to Barnes & Noble to play with the trains, and the first product that caught Parker's eye that day was a plush Mario toy on display in the middle of the store, Mario of the Super Mario Brothers. He wanted it, but "You already have a lot of stuffed animals," I told him. That's when he noticed the collectible figurines. They cost more than the stuffed Mario, and unsurprisingly he was drawn to the tiny pink figure of Peach. It's unsurprising because ever since he started playing MarioKart on the old Nintendo Game Cube my oldest brother gave us a couple of years ago, Peach and Daisy have been Parker's sisters and best friends. Sometimes he tells me he has many sisters, and our dog, Allie, gets named as one of them. There was a time when he called me Peach for several days, wanting me to play Mario Brothers with him in the front yard of our house. We would run around the yard, finding castles into which we would jump, while Parker made the sounds from the Super Mario Bros. Super Show, which aired when we were kids.
It was his money, so I felt he should be allowed to buy with it what he wanted. He got to put two dollars in the offering plate at the time we cashed the check, but that was so long ago I doubt he remembers it. He spent fifty cents of it at the Library Book Store one morning, to buy a paperback book he thought his daddy would like. Michael read it especially because his son bought it for him. He wanted to spend his money and I had it with me, so I let him.
Parker carried Peach home with him, still in the bag, with the sweetest most delighted smile on his face. We opened her box carefully and lovingly when we got home, and she has been his constant companion ever since. Some nights he sleeps with her in his bed with him. Some nights she stays safe on the chest-of-drawers where he can see her in the morning.
Only problem with all this is that Isaac want's to claim Peach for his own as well. There has been many an argument, because when Isaac says, "My Peach," Parker assumes that he means it. Actually, Isaac may think that saying it does make her his. He's only two. It's been a couple of weeks now, and things have calmed down to some extent, but for the first day or two I wondered what on earth I had done.
Parker says he will have to get Mario and Luigi next. Since his stash of money has diminished to a great and glorious amount of two dollars, it may be something of a wait.
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