Sibling Presents

This is the first year we have had our kids give presents officially to each other. I have taken each one individually to the store to help them pick out something for another brother or sister. The girls are buying gifts for each other and the boys are, too.

I took Betsy first. She chose a bird pet that repeats what you say in a birdie voice. It was so cute because when she saw what it did she was laughing so hard in the store and was excited to share it with Ruby. That was the best part of each trip was seeing how excited they felt about giving the gift. We headed home and our plan was to take it into dad's office to wrap it. We put it in a bag and Betsy went in before me. She went right into the family room and announced, "Ruby here is your present, but don't look! And I can't tell you what it is!"

Then when I went with Gavin he had a few ideas of what Gabriel might like. We looked at legos, nerf guns, an army base, and helicopter. He held onto the army base while we went to look at one more thing - Pokemon. Once we got to the Pokemon section Gavin was going back and forth about which EX set, what was in it, and all the different products. He finally chose a Dragonite EX set with other stuff in it that I don't remember. We came home and wrapped it and he put it under the tree. But on the way home from the store he had said to me, "Has Gabriel already bought a present for me?" No. "When you go to the store with him could you show him the Pokemon section, but don't say anything about already being there with me?" 

Ruby was pretty malleable. She liked every toy she saw and carried a few things around, but then eventually decided on a few items I pointed her to - some doll hair accessories, little dog pets, and candy inside a candy cane shape. We wrapped it the next day and she hasn't told Betsy yet. 

Gabriel went with me tonight. He didn't have any idea of what Gavin might want, even though I was trying to brainstorm with him. We walked up a few aisles of toys looking at legos (nexo knights) and board games. Then we saw drones and remote-control cars. I tried making a case for the drones, but Gabriel picked out a remote-control ATV with a rider on it. And handcuffs. In the store he made a comment like, "I bet dad is going to want to play with this right away." Then tonight we wrapped it after everyone had gone to bed. While wrapping it he said, "I saw a jealous look on dad's face because I told him what it was."

So glad we did this this year. A very enjoyable experience for me as the mom.