Christmas shopping with Kain

Today I took Kain to Dollar Tree to buy his gifts. I love using Dollar Tree for this. You can turn loose a kid this age, who has no concept of money yet, and tell him to pick anything he wants. Still, gift buying is a foreign concept to Kain. We had a couple of talks beforehand about how this was going to be BUYING STUFF FOR OTHER PEOPLE, not BUYING STUFF FOR YOURSELF. He did surprising well though. He whined a bit here and there when seeing something he wanted, but he recovered and continued shopping. He is also refreshingly quick and finished in about 10 minutes. My daughter takes SO long to pick out gifts, but Kain doesn't have the patience to take more than 10 minutes to do just about anything. I always enjoy taking kids to shop like this. It's amusing to see what they will pick, what they think other people will like. Here's Kain's finds for today--

For me- a nutcracker soldier

For Maria- a little angel figurine

For Jack- a Dragon Tales board book

For John- a flashlight

For his mom- a picture frame with cats around the border and sentiments indicating that the frame is supposed to be for a picture of your CAT. Kain's mom doesn't have a cat. He wants to put a picture of himself in there, and no amount of persuasion would convince him that this frame was for cat pictures!

For his dad- in a similar vein, a picture frame in the shape of a dog bone.

Now check-out is a bit of a juggling act. See, I'm not supposed to *see* my gift. So, he had his own little basket, and when we were ready to check out I looked the other way while the very amused cashier rang everything up and bagged it for him. Then I was allowed to pay. Maria is going to help him wrap all the presents but the one he picked for her. And this afternoon, I take Maria out to finish her shopping.

Pax,
Melanie