Matching Chairs?

Look at these two girls. More importantly, look at their chairs. The chairs look the same, right? They are both Pottery Barn Kids chairs. The only thing different is their color, right? Yeah, well, not exactly.

You see, Avery got one of these chairs for her 1st birthday from her grandparents. It was pink and had her name embroidered on the back. It was adorable and she loved it. But, ever since she decided about 2 years ago that she hates all things pink, it hasn't gotten much use. So, for her 5th birthday, her Grammy got her a new cover. Batman. I believe the cover was $59. The original chair was around $100 at the time. So, in total, Avery's chair is worth about $160. Not too shabby for a 5-year-old who contributes nothing to the financial status of this family. But she loves it the chair again, so it's worth it.

Then there's Reese's chair. Poor Reesie. She's not the first. She's not the baby. Poor, poor middle child. She never got a $100 chair (they are now $129-damn inflation!) for her first birthday. She has been sitting on the floor for 2 1/2 years. Until now. Now she has her very own, red, shiny (shiny canvas?) PBKids chair. But, she's the middle child. Do you honestly think we would shell out $129 for a chair for our middle child? The baby, maybe...the oldest, certainly. But surely not the middle. Nope. Hers came from a garage sale down the street a few weeks ago. I was driving home and spotted it in the front yard. $5 for a PBKids chair. Covered in animal hair. No worries...I came home, washed the cover in the sanitary cycle twice and sprayed an entire can of Lysol and Febreze on the cushions. And now, it's as good as new. Or at least as good as Big Sister's. She doesn't look like she minds. In fact, she's probably the happiest, most well-adjusted of the bunch. (Have you seen her "go to her happy place" and suck her fingers like there's no tomorrow? If that's not well-adjusted, I don't know what is!)

Tell me I'm right and that it will never bother her that she never gets anything new and special.

Never mind. I'll just make another huge contribution to her Future Therapy Fund. (And pray that someone dumps a PBKids chair in the garbage so Rhett can have one too. Lord knows he can't have a new one now!)

Side note: The fact that Avery is all nonchalant, drinking her drink and refusing to smile at the camera is just more indication that she is over-privileged and has gotten too much attention. Reese is just so glad that I'm taking her picture that she would probably swallow a flaming baton if I asked her to. There's a special place in Heaven for the Middle Child. And that's coming from an over-privileged, attention-hogging Firstborn, so you know it's true.