MICHAEL'S FIRST JOB!

I'm weepy and all a-sniffley. With happiness! Michael has a job -- his FIRST JOB! Here he is at work:



Well, yes, of course I have higher ambitions for him than to end up just washing cars. But this is his first money-making job (I don't really count the bonuses that Abuelita paid him for grades--$10 for an "A", $5 for a "B", nothing for a "C", that he pays us $5 for a "D", and he pays us $10 for an "F"). For each car he washes, he gets $10! 'Twas my idea for helping him learn about working and, later, budgeting, etc.

O moi gawd you should have seen me earlier today hounding the folks at that Big Box Store on what to buy for washing cars (I usually go to a car wash). I came back with a bagful of supplies and the first thing the hubby observes is I should have bought more than one drying-towel. Excuze Moi? How is Moi supposed to know? I have never dried a car in my life; if I end up with a wet car, I just let it, you know, drip-dry...!

(Anyway, you more experienced parent-peeps can tell me if I'm too generous or too stingy. The hubby and I have no idea -- we're just into our second year of parenting, okay?!)

And I'm also weepy because: I DO NOT TAKE THESE MILESTONES FOR GRANTED. Many children who age out of orphanages end up not sufficiently educated to get decent-paying (or legal) jobs.

Okay, I gotta go -- I want to listen to the hubby ponderously explain how, when he was Michael's age, washing cars (along with mowing lawns) was what he used to do to earn extra funds ... which is how he began acquiring wines, but that's another story...

Keep thriving, moi boy!