Aidan and the Dinosaur

So yesterday, Aidan was given a small plastic dinosaur that was a fast food toy. He has hardly put it down since! Today we went to the mall, and of course he brought the dinosaur with him. After lunch, we were looking for shoes, and he was using the dinosaur to "chomp" several pairs of display shoes (his mouth really opens and closes!) and I asked him to stop. He kept right on chomping, so I put the dinosaur in the stroller. Aidan then proceeded to whine, hit the stroller, try to push the stroller off course, mutter disrespectful things, etc. Finally I tossed the dinosaur into the trash as we walked by. Now, before you decide that I am a mean mom, hear me out on the rest of the story!

After a HUGE screaming fit that attracted the attention of everyone in the mall, we made it to the car. I explained to him that because he could not be happy unless he had that dinosaur, I had made the decision to get rid of it. Daddy was there with us, and we both talked with Aidan about how things can become "idols" for us when they become more important to us than obeying. He obviously wanted the dinosaur more than he wanted to obey and please God and more than he wanted to obey Mom. He was willing to do all kinds of ugly things in order to try to get the dinosaur back. We explained that if he had the right attitude when I put the dinosaur in the stroller, we would have kept it, and he could have had it back when we got to the car.

Right before he went to bed tonight, he decided to write a story. We have a book called, "I Love You Because You're You" and he decided he wanted to write one like that book. Here is what he came up with:

I love mommy when I'm sleeping.
I love mommy when I'm resting with honeybear and blankie.
I love mommy when I'm having wild time.
I love mommy when I'm having silly time.
I love mommy when I'm mowing.
I love mommy when she's throwing out my dinosaur.
I love mommy when I'm having breakfast and mommy and daddy are having breakfast.

When he got to the dinosaur part, I said "really? Why?" He said, "I don't know, I just do."

His birthday is on Friday and I am getting him another dinosaur which I will wrap up with a note about how I want him to look at this dinosaur and remember that God forgives us and is gracious to us even when we are ugly.