A Lesson from Pez Dispensers

I took the twins with me to the grocery store this afternoon.  I though I was done with taking kids to the grocery store now that all the kids are in school.  I felt a little nostalgic about that fact.  But since I wanted to use all the twins' school time to get work done, I figured it would be a fun field trip to take them with me to the grocery store when they got out of school at 1:15 and then be back to pick up the big kids at 3:30.

Can you guess where this is going?

As usual, the twins kept trying to ride on the side of the cart (almost tipping it over again and again - especially when they both decide to try riding on the same side) and skipped and twirled around the store, nearly careening into quite a few people.  Of course, they had to ask whether they could have about 1000 different random things that looked oh so appealing.  And unsurprisingly, Silas had a sudden huge need to hit the restroom when we were about as far away from the restroom as you can get.  It was hard to keep my train of thought with all their antics but I stayed calm and we made it through with considerably more grace than we were able to muster up back when I had to shop with 5 preschoolers a few years back.

Then, at check-out, Oliver and Silas found these Wall-E Pez dispensers that they thought were the greatest things ever.  They begged for their 1000 and 1st thing.

But before throwing out yet another line about not needing or wanting the item in question, I pulled myself back a bit and really looked at these adorable boys of mine and their hopeful, pleading little faces.  I realized I'd been entirely too focused on my shopping - which really doesn't matter as much as enjoying time with my cute kids.  I decided it was about time to really entertain one of their requests. We checked the price - $1.50.  Pretty reasonable.  I remembered how cool I thought Pez dispensers were when I was a kid.  I remembered that they'd earned $1.50 each from doing jobs around the house on their star charts - they're saving up for more Transformers.

I got the rest of the stuff on the conveyor belt, bent down to really look into their sweet little faces and asked them whether they wanted to use their money on the Pez - it would mean it would take a little longer to earn enough money for the Transformers - but it was their choice.  They considered - for about a second - and then started jumping around in glee - "We can get these?  Really?  We can?"  When I said it was their money and it was up to them, Silas did a cartwheel (just about knocking out all the check-out candy) and Oliver announced to the check-out lady - "we get to buy these things with our own money that we earned!"  The lady was very cute about it and congratulated Ollie and Si heartily as she rang up their dear Pez dispensers and handed them their prizes.


Oh, I love these boys of mine.  They are so full of energy and light and love and exuberance.  I'm annoyed with myself that I spent too much of my little "date" with my boys sort of cursing their energy and exuberance in my mind as I struggled to keep my train of thought and get things done (and keep accidents from happening).  Some of the very things that I love so much about them can be hard sometimes - but that's OK.  I'll take the hard with the good - I have to - they're inseparable.  And it's up to me to decide whether to focus on the positive or the negative - and to decide to enjoy the moment more and worry about the task at hand less.