sometimes, what we have already is enough.
a few days ago, isaac was telling ben and i that he wanted to buy some new lego bionicles.
"don't the new bionicles look quite a bit like the hero factory guys you have?" we asked him.
"well, yeah, they do."
"and don't you have quite a few of the original bionicle guys?"
"well, yes," to that too.
"so why would you need new ones?"
turns out the neighbor boy has two of the newer ones. and they are big. bigger than isaac's hero factory figures. so as soon as isaac had enough money saved up from some jobs, he asked us if he could spend it on new bionicles.
ok. parenting moment. just because i have enough money to buy something i want, doesn't mean that i should buy the thing right this second. i need to think about why i want it. one-upping my friend is not a good reason to buy something. ever. i also need to think about what i or the others in my life need or might need. i need to think about the fact that christmas is not so very far away. i need to think about having a bit saved away for a rainy day. i need to think about if something i have already would work. then i need to think about if this thing i want to buy is really the thing i want to buy. if, after all this thinking, i still want to buy it, then i should buy it!
after visiting for a while about all of this, isaac headed upstairs and we could hear the sounds of the lego bins.
before too long, he came downstairs with this:
i didn't realize how big and involved these are! (the new ones don't hold a candle to the originals!) back when isaac first got a bunch of these (from a dear friend who's son was growing out of them), he had never built them from start to finish. he basically built their skeletons.
that was cool. and isaac was maybe five-years-old. but i had no idea how really cool they could be!
i don't think isaac did either. after building more of them, he realized that he certainly didn't need to buy any bionicles. not only that, he didn't even want to!
he got down to business and built five of them! (the one on the far left is one his friend put together from more pieces isaac has, and the second from the left is one of his friend's new ones.) isaac is having a great time putting these together and playing with them and inviting his friend to play, too.
and a couple days later, he told me a little list of people and the christmas presents he is planning for them. some things he needs to buy, some things he'll make, all very thoughtful. he even bought a birthday present for our tiny neighbor girl - her second birthday is tomorrow.
these are the kinds of things that ben and i love talking over with our kids. partly because it helps us solidify who we ourselves want to be while we help our kiddos grow into people who live with kindness, joy and peace.
be encouraged and be wonderful, my friends.
love, ~e