(I just woke up, and feel almost completely back to normal! Yay! What a difference a day makes! I just wish that Day hadn’t been my birthday. Oh well – I’ll have a redo tomorrow – and really try to psych myself out that it’s the 9th!)

Well, regarding Ali’s winnings (or really Ali’s Daddy’s winnings in Ali’s name) I took all of your advice into consideration, but ended up doing exactly what Chris suggested I do with Ali’s $50. Because I’m submissive like that and all.

I had been wanting to get Ali a toddler chair for quite some time, but couldn’t do it, being that it seemed impractical. So Chris suggested that I use her winnings to do that, as Chris has a very fun philosophy of using unexpected money for things that we would not usually buy (for instance, our tax rebate earlier this year bought him a new TV and me a new dishwasher. Mine was needed, his was fun).

So, Ali and I went to Target on Wednesday and bought her a chair!

She insisted that I take them all off of the shelf to try them out before choosing one.
The only one I didn’t get down for her was blue corduroy, because, let’s face it, I wasn’t buying that one. But it bothered her that she didn’t get to try it out as well.

My precarious buggying of chosen chair:
And Ali wanted to try it out in the back of the car to show off for the lady who had parked next to us in the parking lot and was giving Ali quite the attention:Here she is at home, trying out her chair.

And, for the record, the tag is still on it, just in case she doesn’t end up liking it and just continues to say “Mommy Hold You. . .”

So. . . Chris and I have always had an affinity for entering into a good ole’ football squares game. He likes brackets during March Madness also, but since I hate basketball more than cleaning out the refrigerator, I don’t do brackets.

We are not normally gambling people, but an office pool is always fun to enter. Either Chris’ office or the lawyer’s office next door always has a football squares game for Alabama games. You know – the ones where there are 100 squares, and you buy a square for $1, and if the last digit of the score for each team lines up with your square at a quarter, half, or final, you win $25 or $50 or $100 (depending on the rules).

I have actually NEVER won at Chris’ office or the office next door’s squares, but I’m not out anything because Chris always buys me the squares and never “charges” me for them. He’s a true southern gentleman.

Anyway, so this year for each game, Chris has been buying:
2 squares for him
2 squares for me
2 squares for Ali (I can hear your gasps of indignation now).

So in summary, he’s been shelling out $6 a week of his “allowance” for a little fun to be had for all.

And. . . . Ali won this week.
Chris actually forgot to bring his squares home for Saturday, so we didn’t have the fun of pulling it out and looking at it at the game, so he had to wait until he got back to work this morning to check, and sure enough, our 21 month old daughter is a successful gambler.

And $50 richer.

So now the question is, how do you “let” your toddler spend their gambling wins? Or do you put it in their piggy bank to teach them “good” saving lessons?

Oh – and for the record, it was our lawyer’s office that started this squares game. So if we get arrested due to the publishing of this blog, at least we know where to find our defense.