A little spoiling goes a long way

I always told myself when I had children that I wouldn't spoil them so they didn't grow up to be spoiled little brats. Easy, right? That was, of course, before I had any children. Three children later and my viewpoint on that has changed just a little bit.

Nothing makes me happier than seeing the faces of my children light up and nothing makes me sadder than seeing my children pout and cry. Every now and then, you just have to spoil them. It won't make them rotten, I hope, and it makes them happy. There is nothing I want to do more than make them happy. I can't explain how I feel when I see the look of joy on their faces. Their little eyes get big and light up, their mouths open and gasp in delight, they run and give you the biggest hug and then they say the three little words that make your heart melt, "thank you mommy!"

The other day we were walking the mall and decided to walk through Build-A-Bear, just to see what new things they may have in there....what were we thinking? That was a terrible idea! They had a Woody costume, which of course Konner fell in love with! And then there it was....Natalli spotted the purple bear with sparkly hair, which just so happened to be an iCarly bear. The look on her face was priceless. She was in love....and then we had to break it to her, we were not buying it. Her happy, joyful face suddenly turned to a look of devastation and sadness. She cried all the way out of the mall. It broke my heart how upset she was. There is nothing worse than making your child cry. Now, not saying that you should always say "yes" to them, there are times where "no" is needed. But when it came to the bear, I felt horrible telling her "no." So we decided that we would go back and get the kids a Build-A-Bear. Not only would it be fun to do together as a family, but also something they could cuddle with at night and love.

Natalli chose the iCarly purple, sparkly bear, with the iCarly outfit and the rock star tennis shoes. She named her bear Carly, I know, real original right? Well, she is 5 after all, to her, it is original and practical. :-) Konner decided on a wolf, very Konnerish. And of course, he needed to get his wolf the Woody outfit, because the kid cannot go anywhere without his Woody. The outfit is complete with cowboy boots and a cowboy hat. He named his wolf Wolfie....again, I know, original, but easy for a 3 year old to remember. And we couldn't leave out poor Heath. Of course he's not old enough to tell us what he wants, but it just wouldn't be right if we let the older two get one and didn't also get one for Heath. So we chose him the cutest, softest teddy bear. He's kind of old-school looking, which is neat. We decided on black high-top tennis shoes with jeans and a white shirt and black vest. He is very hip and rock-n-roll looking. Greg and I named him Cuddles.

They got to step on the peddle to get their animals stuffed and then they got to pick out each of their animals a heart. Which they had to rub to warm up, jump up and down to get it pumping and then they had to kiss before they stuck it inside their animal. Then they got to take them to the "wash" area to get them all "clean" before we took them to the dressing area to get them dressed in their new outfits.

They carried their little animals out to the car in their little "homes" and had to hold them in the car all the way home. They are now currently cuddling with them in bed while they are sleeping. They were so excited to go get them and I was so excited to see the look on their face when they got them. It makes my heart happy knowing that I could do something, something so little and easy, to make them so happy. Makes me melt when they smile, I am currently now a puddle of goo. A very, very big puddle of goo and I can go to bed tonight happy and knowing that I could do something to make the lives of my children a little brighter tonight. Spoiling isn't always bad. :-)