Pieces Parts

It’s that time again—time to find all the parts to all the toys, games and children items and put them back together.   Children like to move things around as they play with them and commonly they don’t all get returned to their starting place.   I feel like this needs to happen on the same frequency as the “go through the pile of papers on the desk” work or “clean out my inbox” job people do.    It starts out clean and organized but over time things just pile up.

The last time I started this process was when my mother was in town and then I began again when with my husband to clear out some toys my children had aged out of.   Neither time did I finish the job completely, even though I made good progress on the overall project.    Last week I got mentally annoyed with the disarray of children’s accouterments all over the house and made a mental note to start over with renewed enthusiasm once the holiday weekend was over.

I asked our sitter if she wanted to help some and she told me she loves organizing and would be glad to help.   I got a good start today, going through some of the smaller areas in the house, taking piles of “this needs to be sorted” up to the bonus room for work through the remainder of the week.   To do the job thoroughly, I’ve been looking at things and deciding what needs to be removed as well, such as taking baby blankets and other things that no longer have a place in the children’s bedroom to free up space for other things like Transformer character collections which would make better use of the available shelf space.

Hopefully I’ll get the job done completely this go round.   Then…I can start on the attic, which is an entire other area that needs attention.  

The Big Boy Update:  My son and husband did their first night of fifteen minutes of “special time” together tonight.   My son wanted to put a Lego together with him.  They picked something small and were able to get a nice model done together.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter and I spent fifteen minutes together tonight playing a game she’s been asking for recently that I couldn’t locate until I started organizing the toys today.   We played a hamburger game given to us by her cousin Olivia.   She had her own rules which didn’t involve anyone really winning.   Many burger patties were flipped and we were both imaginary “full” by the end.