Toolin' Around on a Sunday Morning

We get the Sunday paper delivered to our house. We never read the actual paper-paper (hello, recycling bin); we get the paper for the sales ads.

G takes the "boy papers" - Best Buy, Circuit City, Lowes. I take everything else. I even have a system - coupons first, followed by the stores I'll never go to (Kmart, office supply stores, furniture stores), saving the best for last (Kohl's and Target).

We sit at the kitchen table, scouring the ads for things we "need" or want. Sometimes we're just browsing, looking to see what's new and who has the best price on Diet Coke or New Balance tennis shoes.

We drink coffee and fresh juice. We eat toast and sometimes eggs and bacon. It's relaxing, and it's our little weekend thing. I actually look forward to Sundays because of this quiet time.

Now, Pumpkin has taken an interest in the Sunday paper. As soon as G brings in the paper, P starts asking for "my tool book." Pumpkin is obsessed with the Sunday Sears ad.

He removes the "extra" pages - gone are the clothes, housewares, and appliances. P is only interested in tractors, tools, and garage stuff. He skims these pages like some sort of treasure map, talking to himself under his breath, taking it all in.

Finally, he crawls into my lap and asks me to read the pages to him. Like a bedtime story, I start, "Save 100 dollars! Now only 399 dollars, Craftsman seven drawer tool chest with ball bearing drawers! On sale! Ten piece screwdriver set with free carrying case! Fourteen ninety-nine! Your choice: tape measure or tool carry-all for under seven dollars!"

When P's had enough of my reading of his tool pages, he jumps off my lap, takes his advertisement, and sits at his little table in the corner of the kitchen. He'll spend minutes (feels like hours, but I'll take the 20 minute relief where/when I can) with the ad and a pencil, making tiny marks on the images, almost like he's taking notes.

We have to save his "tool book" for the entire week. P comes back to it almost every night, pondering the images, "reading" it to himself. When the next Sunday's ad arrives, the old one is discarded. And the cycle continues...

We're going on our first family vacation later this year (first trip that doesn't involve visiting family, friends, or our alma mater), and my parents recently sent a package for P to be opened on the plane when he gets antsy. It's a 200-page Craftsman tool catalogue. P will LOVE it!