Diesel 10

At her last visit, Mema brought us a small catalog of Thomas the Train products- what they call their "Yearbook." Just to see all the great things we _could_ put on his train table- because, you know, we already can't fit what he has on there. Keagan has loved looking at this and pointing to all the trains and learning their names. He decided he wanted to have one in particular, named Diesel 10. Considering he asked for just this one particular engine in the whole book and did it consistently for a couple days, I figured he really meant it. We decided to count how much money he had in his Piggy Bank. (We give Keagan some spare coins when he does good things like help clean up, brush his teeth without a fight, etc. Not all the time, but just whenever he seems particularly helpful or well behaved, and he gets a kick out of putting them in his piggy bank- which he learned from a Curious George episode.) I told Keagan that he could use the money in his Bank to buy the engine if we could find it at the store. It turns out he had $9.00 (plus some pennies, but I put those back) in his bank. I figured that since this was just a plain engine- no extra cars, no lights or sounds- that it would be about $12-13 as I seemed to recall that's what the original plain Thomas and Percy cost. I was happy to tell him he had enough in his bank since he's only 2 1/2 and I know the concept of paying for things at all is not one he fully grasps, but I figured we could make a start on it with this and at least he'd maybe grasp he used his Bank money, even if the amount was not accurate.
We decide to head to AC Moore because they have one of the best Thomas collections that I've seen, but I am careful to explain to Keagan that it is possible they will not have this exact engine that he wants. He seems to understand. When we get there, we find the Thomas section and in about 20 seconds Keagan is pointing and saying "there's the engine!" I am delighted that they have his heart's desire until I see the price tag... not the $12 or even $13 I had envisioned, but in fact, $18.99. FOR ONE TRAIN! Sigh. What could I do? If it cost $40 I probably would have paid it at this point with so much build up and him clutching the train and looking up at me saying "we go to the front and pay, we have to pay for it." So we walk up to the cashier and Keagan happily puts his train on the counter and says "here you go!" to the lady and then a great big "Thank you!" when she hands it back in the bag, prompting her to say "Oh my gosh, he is the cutest thing and so polite!" To which I responded "Thank you. That's why he's getting a $20 train."