Cash Infusion

Lev’s birthday party was on Saturday, and just about every kid got him a Lego set, so he spent all day Sunday quietly building various Star Wars cruisers and Indiana Jones vehicles, all while yearning for his elusive Republic Gunship.

He had about $60 saved and was about halfway toward his goal, but conversations with him recently suggested he was starting to realize that spending $125 on this Lego could very well be a waste of his money. (We found it on the internet for about $80, but we’ll cross the purchasing bridge when we get to it.) He was indicating he didn’t want it anymore, but I did not want to let his dream die (of having a goal and meeting it, regardless of what it was) so I have continued to encourage him not to give up and I would continue to help him raise the money, particularly since I had a pretty good sense he would receive a cash windfall on his birthday which could put him over the top. So he was starting to resort to a strategy of waiting until he got as much as maybe $200 before spending the $125; that way he would still have some money remaining and wouldn’t blow it all on just one thing (if only the rest of the country, and this President’s administration thought about finances as well as this 8-year old).

We opened a bank account for him (and Daniel and Molloy) so he could have a better sense of accounting, because each time he would want to know how much money he had he would have to recount it. Now, whenever he gets money we bring him down to the bank where he can have the satisfaction of depositing it himself and getting his bankbook updated. Now he only needs to look at the bankbook to know how much money he has.

Sunday night was his “Birthday Dinner”, when Kerrie makes his favorite meal, which for him is baby back ribs. Kerrie makes them in the slow-cooker and they are absolutely fabulous. In fact, they are so good that it is unfortunately easy to forget she also made homemade cornbread and cole slaw.

With each of us armed at the table with our own roll of paper towels, we devoured the ribs with slobbered faces, power washed each kid, and then proceeded to hand Lev his family birthday presents.

One by one, he opened card after card which contained cash or check to go toward his Republic Gunship fund. When he was finished, I asked him who he was going to call first.

“The bank,” he said.