What's yours is mine...

Recently Madeline has started collecting money in a little coin purse that she has. And when I say collecting, I really mean finding money Dave and I leave around the house and putting it in her purse. For the most part it was only pennies, dimes, nickels, and the occasional quarter (maybe this is because Dave and I don't carry alot of money...). Not a big deal. I would go through every once in a while and take back the quarters, because hey, you always need quarters, right? And I would take issue with her when she would show us all the money she "earned", and inform her she didn't earn the money but took it from mommy and daddy. I couldn't have her going through life thinking money is earned by just taking what you find, could I?

Then one day Dave couldn't find two 100 dollar bills he had. You can probably guess where this is heading. At first, Dave was just mildly concerned, thinking that it would turn up as we looked for it, me a little more concerned because I had just picked up recently and never come across it. As we really started looking around, the feeling came to me to look in her purse, but I was doubtful she would have put that much money in it. I mean, this was $200! But I looked anyway, and sure enough, she had confiscated that money. Needless to say, we had a little talk with her about not taking money anymore, and have become more aware of how visible our money may be. Good thing we don't usually carry alot of money around. But one thing is for sure, next time we lose any money, I know right where I am checking first.