Give it to the other kids

I'm not quite sure why yet, but Rylee is always wanting to leave things behind for "the other kids".  She loves stickers and gets excited when somebody offers her one, but 30 seconds later she says, "lets leave it here for the other kids."  Same with her kids meal toy (this always makes me extra happy as I don't want the kids meal toys coming home with us anyway).  She even got to pick out a couple of toys at the doctor's office and we left them behind for "the other kids". 

As I have been purging my house to get rid of things we don't use, I hadn't touched many of the kids' things.  Every time I went to the basement to go through the toys, I kept hearing a familiar 2 year old voice in my head saying, "Mommy, where's my (insert donated toy here)?"  So, I decided to have her help me pick which toys we would donate.  This ended up being so much easier than I had anticipated.  She was more than happy to give up some of her toys.  She is still saying "I have a lot of toys!  Let's give some to the other kids." 

As the holidays are approaching and I am planning my annual charitable donations, I think I need to embrace Rylee's thoughtfulness and start teaching her about helping those less fortunate than us.  She and I could both also gain something from performing more random acts of kindness.  I'm not sure she will truly understand it this year, and possibly not next year either, but I figure it can't hurt to start early. 

I'm thinking about having her pick out a toy for Toys for Tots, helping put food in the barrels at the grocery store, and shopping for an Angel Tree family.  I am also contemplating buying some small gift cards to places like Starbucks and Dairy Queen to hand out randomly during the month of December -- my thought being, Rylee will help me hand them out and see how excited strangers get to receive an unexpected gift.  Perhaps I will have her help me make something to leave for the mailman as well. 

I am feeling overly generous this year as I have been realizing how wasteful I am.  Whether it is food or household items, I have thrown away all kids of perfectly good items.  I bought a sandwhich at the mall last weekend and only ate half of it.  I was so embarrassed to throw away the other half; I was hoping no one would see me.  I wish I could buy food in "petite" sizes at restaurants because I rarely eat it all and feel horrible throwing the rest away.  Anyway, realizing that I have enough things to be able to just throw stuff away, made me think of those who are much less fortunate and I am feeling the need to up the ante on my donations this year (and I will count donating a couple hundred items from my house to Goodwill this past month a huge increase already). 

If anyone has suggestions on charitable things I could with Rylee, I would love to hear them!!  In addition, as you are shopping on Thanksgiving, or very early on Black Friday, or seeing a movie on a holiday, remember that the employees working are missing time with their families (or sleep) and we should be overly appreciative of them!!  If you make a stop at Starbucks, maybe buy a $5 gift card for a working mall employee :)