Not Beanie Babies - well not exactly....

I am sure you remember Beanie Babies...right? Everyone went nuts collecting them. They were all the same, save their color. It was nuts, people paying upwards to 1,000 bucks per bear... madness!!!

Well, I feel the soft sand under my feet. I can feel my toes start to sink. I am being dragged down into the quicksand that is collecting. And even though I am hyper aware of my slow decent into madness I do nothing to reverse the situation.

Let me explain....

Last summer a movie called 'Cars' hit the big screen, you may have heard of it. At the time it was the latest offering from Disney/Pixar. We had all these big plans to take Braden to it. It was this whole big deal... it was to be his first movie...but alas - every time we tried our plans were thwarted.

But I digress.

We also started potty training that summer. Braden was fairly easy (in my estimation). He caught on quick and during the day picked up the habit of going in the toilet. But nap time was a different story. No matter what I did he had ZERO motivation to stay dry (and clean.... yuck!). (and YES that means with OR withOUT a diaper/pull-up)

Then someone bought him a little die cast replica of one of the characters in the movie Cars. He went nuts and I got an idea. I went onto eBay and found a complete set of ALL the die cast replicas... about 25 in all. The deal was that if he stayed dry during his nap, after he woke up he would get a car.

It worked perfectly. And over the next month or so we developed a wonderful after-nap ritual.

The world turned, and fall came. We were potty trained and focused on other things - which was perfect since "we had done ran out of cars!"

But now a year later we are faced with the same problem. Although he hasn't worn a diaper or pull-up in FOREVER during the day. We were still using them at night, since we were still kinda hit or miss. But then a habit formed. He got lazy.... what is a mom to do.

While on this nonsense was taking place my mind started to wander to Christmas and stocking stuffers. There were a few cars (special movie moments) that were not included in my original purchase. I thought these would be a fun gift for Christmastime. And as I searched eBay for what cars I had missed I discovered that there have been more characters released. Apparently they have made a die cast replica of ALL of the characters in the movie. They are on their 3rd release as of October.

How do I know all this you might ask? Well... that's where the madness comes in.

Under the guise of "having enough for Braden's rewards" I have gone a bit nuts with these cars. I have gone to fan websites and read about the cars that haven't even been released yet. I scan eBay and Wal-mart daily looking for different characters. At Wal-mart they cost 2.97 - but on eBay one piece can cost up to 25.00 bucks!

So I read, and learn and shop. All the while filling up his box of "dry pants rewards". I like looking at them, holding them, lineing them all up.... its pure insanity! I know all their names, I know which ones we need. Which ones are super rare, which ones are comeing out next. I go to Wal-mart EVERYDAY to check for the new shipment. Now, in my defense - the daily Wal-mart trips are just because I refuse to pay $20.00 for tiny piece of metal....

$10 possibly $12 is my limit....

Like I said... madness