The Tale of the Giant Pink Calculator

This morning we headed to the bookstore to buy a birthday gift for one of Will's friends (Captain Flinn and the Pirate Dinosaurs by Giles Andreae for anyone who's interested...Will just can't get enough of it!) I didn't notice, but he'd brought his green silly putty into the store. He'd been playing with it all morning and I'd already asked him once not to stick it on furniture or fabric since it probably wouldn't come off.

So, we're browsing the books and I notice Will's stuck the silly putty on the foam handles of the stroller. I scold him and successfully peel it all off (my mistake was that I didn't confiscate it). Then, we head to the cash. While in line, Will comes up to me and says "I have a little problem". I look over and see a small piece of green silly putty on the carpet and am about to say "don't worry about it" but he leads me over to the display of giant calculators (they are the size of an 8.5 by 11 piece of paper) and points to a pink one that's got green silly putty covering one of the buttons. What was he thinking?????? So, I try desperately to peel the putty of the key with no luck. By this time he knows he's in big trouble and is screaming crying. Alex has now joined in with his sympathy cry. I take the giant pink calculator over to the cashier and say "I guess we're buying this". Will cries louder "Mum, I don't WANT the calculator and I hate pink!" I was secretly wishing that the cashier would feel bad for me with my two screaming kids and just let it go. But no. The calculator was regularly $14.95 but it was my lucky day and it was on sale for $10. So, we are now the proud owners of a giant pink calculator. Needless to say we threw the silly putty in the trash right outside and Will lost his restaurant lunch privilege. I'm not sure how a 4-year old's mind works, but between the tears on the drive home he asks "Mum, are we going to throw out the old black calculator now that we have a big pink one?" When we got home we dumped out Will's piggy bank and transferred the $10 into Dad's. We talked about how he wasted Dad's money and he needed to tell him that he was very sorry.

Oh, the crazy tales of a stay-at-home mom.