Eighty-five cents

An Elijah story, courtesy of his proud father.

I took Elijah down to the laundry room last night to start some washers. As usual, he likes to help a little, but also likes to play around in the room. We then went upstairs to have dinner during the time the clothes were washing, after which we would switch clothes to the dryers. During dinner Elijah brought me coins to the dinner table and asked if they added up to 85 cents.
I counted them out and said, no its 45 cents and some pennies. So he brought me more coins.
Still not enough. He made a third trip and finally had enough quarters, nickels and dimes, so I showed him which ones added up to 85.

We later went down to the laundry room and on the way out I noticed he grabbed some coins off the table. As I was loading clothes into the dryers I hear coins going into some vending machine, thinking uh oh, Elijah is throwing random coins into the vending machine, and then… kerplop, some can gets dispensed out.

I go over to the vending machine to see Elijah with a huge smile on his face, completely delighted with a can of Sprite just dispensed from the vending machine.
As I look, somewhat confused and amazed at what he just did, I notice the vending machine says 85 cents, right above the coin slot.

At that point I finally understood why Elijah was asking for exactly 85 cents, which is exactly what he put in. I have to admit, I did not expect this plan of action from my 4 year old, but obviously he had it planned out all along… What a smart, if somewhat mischievous, little cookie!
My boy ;-)