The De-Junk-a-thon

Tomorrow, I am de-junking my kids room. This is a semi-annual chore that I do not look forward too. My children completely fall to pieces at the mention of 'Mom is going to organize your room'. They know this means they will come back to find all their precious kid's meal toys trashed, broken toys they love but no longer play with missing and the pile of paper about 1 foot high with every scrape of paper they ever made a mark on will have dwindled down to only the really special ones. It's like the movie 'Toys Story' on garage sale day. Only it's my kids who have mass panic not the toys. They are over it in about 24 hours, long since forgotten what it was they couldn't live without. Then you start to hear things from their room like "hey, I forgot I had this doll" and "oh, I love this guy, Mom, look! I found my guy!" Toys they haven't used in months become magical again because they can actually find them! Wow, I think I'm talking myself up for this because I dread it so much. On the other hand it is Sooo nice when it's done!

Speaking of great toys, I think the best toy we have ever purchased, well Granny purchased the first set, is the Fisher Price Geo Tracks Train set. Ryan got this for Christmas when he was 2 and we have added pieces to it for almost every birthday or Christmas for years. He is now 6 and it is still the hit toy. Jena loves it also. It's only downfall is that it is so big now that it takes a 10x10 empty space to set it up! Barry and I get so involved in setting it up perfectly that we won't let the kids near it until the track is positioned so the train can make an unending loop which covers all pieces of track. This is quite a challenge, great if you like puzzles. At least the kids don't reck our efforts now. My cousin's little 2 year old boy Peyton was here last night and the moment he saw the train he was on a mission! He would not leave it alone, he was also like godzilla to the mini train city below, but it was so cute how excited he was.

Speaking of Godzilla, we refer to Sara as Baby-zilla at our house. She is 9 months tomorrow and wants anything she can get her hands on. She does something that all of my kids have done but it is still just as funny and frustrating. We hand our kitchen hand towel on the oven door handle. When she is in her walker she goes straight to the towel the moment she sees it and pulls it off and throws it over her shoulder. It usually ends up hooked on the back of her walker and she drags it around the house with her. If we can't find it then we get out another and she repeats the process. It's not unusual to find 3-4 hand towels from the Living room to the family room and down the hall if they aren't all stuck to the back of her walker still.