The things we do for our kids...

I was eating a Happy Meal cheeseburger the other night, and took a look at the little toy, pondering what to do with it. One of the guys from work saw my face, and, correctly guessing what I was thinking, suggested that I hold onto it. "It could wind up being worth $38 someday," was his wry comment. He then related the story of his 4 year old son's request to Santa for a specific toy that he'd never heard of...a week before Christmas. He got on-line, did some looking, and found the little toy...yes, a Happy Meal toy...on auction. He and his wife watched the bids, it was getting down to the wire, and, yep, he won the bid at $38. Sure enough, Santa placed the toy in Samuel's stocking, and all was right in his world.

Of course, I then had to relate my story of Strawberry Shortcake's miraculous ability to grow hair...and that she could only grow it once! When Elizabeth was little, probably 3 or 4, she had a little Strawberry Shortcake doll that she loved dearly...and truthfully I guess we all did, because we all did our share of "talking" for her. One day at the babysitter's house, the sitter's granddaughter led Elizabeth into styling Strawberry's hair. It was so sad when I picked her up that afternoon. I could tell she was upset when she showed Strawberry to me. Well, we went home, and that evening her dad and I told her we'd try washing Strawberry's hair with something special to see if we could "grow" her hair, but just understand it would probably only work once. You can probably guess the rest. After she went to bed, Reggie ran all over town to find another Strawberry doll. When he returned, we changed out her clothes so that she was wearing the right dress, and kind of smudged her up a bit to look truly loved and to have that wagged-around look.

We got by with it...until a few years later. As I said, we all loved Strawberry, and I personally couldn't bear to part with the original, so she went into the attic. Well, when we sold that house, Elizabeth happened to be in the garage with me as I was checking to see what was up there, and she saw her head poking out of a box. Hopefully she wasn't traumatized by the deception.