On a recent trip to the store with my daughter she ran across this toy frog. “Daddy can I have this
” she looked up at me with a smile. I prefer my kids to earn things rather than just give to them. So I replied “sure, if you do the chores Mommy and Daddy ask of you like keeping your room picked up and all your toys put away”. She put it back on the shelf and we went on our way. Several days had gone by and she keep her side of the deal and I went back and got her that frog. That will be 3.25 the lady behind the counter said. As I was walking to the truck I couldn’t help but to think of how simple her life is right now. All she wanted was a toy frog, a simple plastic frog! As I put the key into the ignition and sat behind the wheel I couldn’t help but to think of how as the years pass it wont always be this simple. The thought over her growing older wore at me all day, but I just pushed it aside knowing this toy would make her day. Once home, I put he frog on the kitchen counter as if it were just anything else that would naturally be there. It only took about forty five seconds for her to realize “jumpy” the frog was home. She had already named it. So for the rest of the night her and jumpy were inseparable. Jumpy ate dinner with her, read books, and even went nite nite with her. She begged for jumpy to lay with her when it was time, so how could we say no. The next morning my wife went in to wake her up and found jumpy perched on her chest wrapped in her little fingers. She snapped a picture with her phone to come show me while I was getting ready. I told my wife it looked liked she may have kissed the frog before she went to sleep and was hoping for a prince when she woke up. Once I finally laced my boots up I made my way into her room to see her sleepy eyes staring back at me and she was grinning from ear to ear. I hope I’m that prince.
