Happy Father's Day!

Lucy has a wonderful daddy who invents fun games to play, sings silly songs that always make her smile, has introduced her to Carebears (his personal childhood favorite), and gives good balance to her mommy's structured way of doing things. To show how much she loves him, she wanted to pick out a gift all by herself to show him just how much she cares... or, her mommy couldn't come up with a great Daddy's Day gift. One of the two. So instead of buying something silly, say a tie, I decided that Lucy would get free reign of Target and could pick anything in the store. We talked about this plan for a few days so that she had time to process the concept. Each time I said, "We're going to go to Target so you can pick out a present to show Daddy how much you love him" she would say, "I want pink present for Daddy". Right before we left to go she said, "I buy pink present for Daddy AND Lucy". I prepared myself for a fight and gently explained the reason for buying Daddy a gift and that she is not a daddy and doesn't get a gift for Father's Day. So we get to Target and after spending 5 minutes deciding between the regular shopping cart and the jumbo size, 2-seater kids cart, we were on our way. (We chose the regular cart. Thanks Lucy!) We followed our usual route starting with women's clothes, moved on to shoes, then to men's clothes. I held up a nice-looking shirt to which she said, "It not pink, Mommy. Daddy want pink present." So we continued our adventure to toys, seasonal, home, kid's clothes, food, health and beauty, and finally electronics. (I told you she could choose anything in the store.) As we went through the aisles, I would ask, "Do you see anything Daddy would like?". She chose many items along the way:

- pink pig travel neck pillow

- bike helmet with spikey mohawk and ears

- pool swimmies

- Leap Frog dinosaur alphabet toy

- transformer

- race car display (not 1 race car; the entire display)

- Simpson's drinking glasses (I am so thankful she didn't make these her final choice)

- a Barbie doll she called "Barbara"

- a baby doll (surprise, surprise)

- a stuffed dog

- an owl pillow (I was kind of hoping she would pick this because I can't find her decorative pillow for her room and her bed needs one.)

And the winner is...

The Play Dough Ice Cream set! Not a bad choice. She loves playing Play Dough with her daddy and this little contraption really makes it look like ice cream. She was quite excited to tell him about it too. When she saw him later that afternoon (for the 1st time in a week) she said, "We buy you Play Dough; wanna play, Daddy? Mommy, where Play Dough? Daddy wanna play."

I also let her pick the cards. She did pretty well with Jeff's. It said something about Father's Day and his princess. My dad's was also pretty good after I changed the part about drinking a lot of beer to drinking a lot of Gatorade. Jeff's dad, however. Well, his began with "Cousin" and ended with "Happy Birthday". 2 out of 3 isn't bad.

I'd say Lucy learned a little bit about Father's Day and how to choose gifts for the ones we love.

Maybe next year we'll learn about keeping secrets.

Happy Father's Day... a week late :(