When too much snot pays off

(People I know in real life might've already heard this story on my Facebook page. If so, just hum a little tune to yourself while you scroll down and click on the "Top Mommy Blogs" link.)

Lucas really likes cats. One of the first animal sounds he learned to make was a cat sound (assuming of course that you know any cats that say "aaaa.")

Notice that he threw the picture of the dog onto the ground so that we could continue discussing cats. This video is from six months ago. He's much more skilled at meowing now.

I've been meaning to get Lucas a cat stuffed animal for a while now after he discovered that there was such a thing when we were in a book store. He found one and fell in love with it, and I almost bought it for him until I realized that it cost $28. Which is completely ridiculous. So we went home without the abnormally overpriced stuffed cat, but I've been on the lookout for a less expensive one ever since.

About two weeks ago, Lucas had a cold, and instead of taking his normal three-hour nap in the afternoon (I know, I'm spoiled), he only napped for 45 minutes and then woke up pretty angry at life. I figured we'd both benefit from getting out of the house, so I decided to take him to the toy store in search of a reasonably priced toy cat.

They had several options for $8 each, and I handed him two of them to let him pick which one he wanted (which was obviously a really stupid idea, because 19-month-olds don't really grasp the concept of pick ONE but not both.) Of course he wanted both of them. So I pushed him around the store while he held both kitties. I figured he'd get distracted at some point and I could sneak one away without him noticing. And then... he sneezed. Not like a cute, delicate little sneeze. And definitely not a "cover your mouth" sneeze. Snot. Was. Everywhere. Both cats were soaked. It was kind of horrifying, really. And because I didn't want to be the mom who put a disgusting, snotty cat back onto a shelf for some other unsuspecting kid to find, Lucas got two cats.

This is the face of a kid who found a way around his mom's "you can only have one toy" rule.

I ended up spending $16 on toy cats, but he loves them madly and meows at them all the time, so it was worth it in terms of child-satisfaction and mommy-amusement. I have a feeling that I shouldn't tell him this story until he's at least 25, or I'll be the mom of the child who purposefully sneezes all over things he wants because he knows I'll have to buy them.

I sneezed on this button, so now you have to click it. Those are the rules.