Hard at Work

Jessalyn has been eyeing a certain stuffed animal at the store...a cow wearing a hood. She really, really, really wanted it. Not that she needs one more stuffed animal. “But I don’t have a cow,” she told me many times. So, in order to earn some money to buy the $3 cow, we told Jessalyn she’d have to do some jobs. She loved the idea right away. “Mama, how do you spell ‘fire fighter?’” A minute later, she proudly showed me a piece of paper with “fire fighter” written on it. “That’s the job I want. I’ll be a fire fighter, and then they can give me money, and then I can buy the cow!” Hmmm. Great idea, but not an immediate solution to her problem. I explained to her that it takes a long time to be a fire fighter, that you have to be a grown up and go to fire fighter school. “Well, I can go to the fire station and help them put on their uniforms. They can pay me for that!” Disappointed that that idea probably wouldn’t work out either, she moved back to her piece of paper. “Mama, how do you spell ‘nurse?’”

A few careers later, we came up with weeding in the back yard. She was pretty enthusiastic about it, even if she did do a lot of dawdling and rolie polie searching. Later that afternoon, we headed to the store where, after surveying all the animals wearing hoods, she decided that the cow was still the best choice!

Pulling weeds

We had  no idea anything besides weeds would grow back there!

The prize!