Toys, toys, and more toys

Both of my kids are still asleep- at 9:30 a.m. This is very unusual and very awesome. I took the opportunity to go through some of their toys, paring down a little. We got a very generous onslaught of toys and boys for Christmas, so getting rid of a few to make room for new ones seems appropriate.

Now, I love books as much as the next person. I think I always imagined I would keep all of my books and my kids' books. Because they're books! And books are good! They make you smart! You learn things from books! But. The reality is that we live in a two bedroom apartment. We cannot use books as furniture. They don't cook us dinner. They don't dust themselves or arrange themselves neatly back on the shelf after use. And seriously if I kept every book we have acquired since Chicken was born...well, we'd have no room for clothes or toys in her room. And maybe she'd have to sleep on a mattress of books.

So- out with several books. Some are looking worn, so they were easy to toss. Some were just...lame. Like I didn't enjoy reading them to either kid. So why keep them around when we have plenty of other options? And we just got a few good Dr. Seuss' for Christmas? So I think I put 7 books in the "get rid of" box.

Then, toys. In my experience, my daughter does not actually play with her toys when they are a mountain that will fall on her if she dares pluck one out of the mound. But when I periodically store a bunch in her closet and her toy basket is easy to get to and easy to pull out of- surprise!- she plays with her toys. So that was my goal. Get her toy basket easy to get stuff in and out of. That meant tossing about 5 little toys that she doesn't play with anymore, or that she got new and improved versions of at Christmas. I also came across several little baby toys that Monkey used to play with when he was in the lie-on-his-back-and-doesn't-roll-over stage. But that has come and gone. He is crawling and pulling up on furniture, so we don't need little mobiles and rattles anymore. Out with several of those.

It feels much calmer now. And I'll bet that Chicken is much more interested in her toy basket this morning.