I'm a sucker...

Wee-man has a way...a way to get his mother to crumble and buy him things that he definitely does not need. I am rendered powerless by his cute actions...he bats his eyelashes, and I open my wallet. We're not talking expensive, bank-breaking, somewhat useful items. No, we're referring to those $8-$10 pieces of crap that I am actually trying to rid my house of at the moment. Seems counter-intuitive, eh? Well it is. But it makes him smile, and that in turn makes me smile.

A few days ago we went to CVS to pick up, yes, you guessed it, some items for CR's party. We walked by the prominently displayed wall o' crap, stacked high with "how did they even decide to make" this, and "only a sucker would buy" that. Going back to CR's obsession with Cars, he eagle-eyed a Mater bubble blowing device. I cringed when he shrieked "Mater, Mater, Mater," and after a few moments, the cashier was asking debit or credit, and CR was walking out the door with Mater in his clutches.

The thing is designed so poorly. If you tip the blower ever so slightly, the soapy solution pours right out of the front. Try telling a 3-year-old to hold a bubble machine steady while he is running around the driveway with it. If I had been armed with this knowledge, it would have served as kryptonite against CR's manipulative ways, but the magic of packaging and vague details about the contents inside pulled the wool right over my eyes.

In this last shot, the expression on CR's face ("WTF??") is in disbelief for how defective the blower is...

The second impractical purchase was made just this afternoon. We traveled to iParty to get more stuff for CR's party (I think I only have one more shopping trip to make tomorrow morning, and we will be all set for Saturday...if the weather holds up...then we have a whole other mess to deal with), and rather than Cars, it was "Austin, Austin, Austin" when we walked into the store (Austin is the "fun-loving" purple kangaroo on the show...more like the annoyance factor of Barney with a marsupial's pouch). I looked at this purchase not as defeat, but rather, a birthday gift one day early...it was justified, right?

We brought Austin home, and CR immediately "introduced" him the family - he "got on the phone" with Ga and Gee, and told them all about his new friend. He "called" Mimi and Pop-pops and did the same. What an imagination that kid has...

So after this weekend, I will not have an excuse to buy him things...his birthday will be behind us, and I will have to do my best to withstand turning to dust when he makes his material requests. I need my nesting instinct to stand tall, and just think about all the extra clutter these purchases add to our home...I think I can, I think I can...