She did it! Anya saved up $230.00 to.the.penny and I ordered her moon jellyfish tank this morning.
Backstory: at some point earlier this year, I can't even remember when, Anya spied this moon jelly fish tank in her Insect Lore catalog. She told us she wanted to save up for it. It's $460. Considering that she only gets $5 a week in allowance and she was only 5 years old and somewhat fickle, we figured there was no way she was going to reach this particular goal. But, since it seemed she *really* wanted it, I told her that if she managed to save up half of the money, we would cover the other half. It seemed like a safe bet that Chris and I would be keeping our money and that she'd move on to something else within a few weeks.
She made it through months and months of saving. Sometimes it was torturous for her, especially over the summer. She'd hear the ice cream truck down the block and come tearing out of the house, a bit of her allowance stash in hand. But every single time, she'd stop in front of the ice cream truck, pause, look at her money, back to the pictures of ice cream offerings, back to her money, sigh, and walk back home, saying she wanted her moon jellyfish more than ice cream. It was all her. No pressure from us.
And there were a handful of times I took her to the toy store to pick out birthday presents for friends. Anya decided to bring her allowance. She would sit quietly in front of the horse figurines (or other toys, but usually the horses) while I shopped, trying to decide if she really wanted to spend her money at the toy store or save up for the jellyfish. The jellyfish won out every single time and she decided to leave the store with all of her allowance.
She received some monetary help around her birthday from some generous family members and friends who wanted to see her reach her goal (thank you!). This morning I gave Anya her weekly allowance. We counted up what she had, thinking she was a bit short. But when we added in her change, she had exactly $230.00. Not a coin left over. So she handed it all over to me and we ordered the jellyfish online.
Now comes the other hard part for her of waiting for everything to arrive.
She is so unbelievably thrilled this morning. I heard many an ear-piercing scream of excitement. She told everyone at the bus stop this morning, and by now I'm sure her entire class knows.
She is also very proud of herself, as she should be. Chris and I are proud too and quite impressed that she managed to pull it off. Congratulations, kid!
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