I like keeping the kids' smaller toys in baskets on their bookshelves. I think it looks cute, and it's easier for WeeBee to put his toys away when he knows all dinosaurs go in one basket, and all cars in another.
Unfortunately, it's also easier for them to dump everything out.
Like the contents of 5+ baskets down the stairs.
And while Mommy chases one little hoodlum, the other can dump another basket down the stairs, and run off giggling. Then when Mommy chases hoodlum #2, the first one can go right back to causing mayhem.
Somewhere between threatening to throw all the toys in a garbage bag and never letting them see the light of day again, and having hysterics over the mess, I told WeeBee he was being naughty.
WeeBee: (truly, deeply shocked) I not naughty, Mommy! That's impossible!
I see. Clearly, I should not have read "Click, Clack, Moo - Cow's That Type" to this child, because now everything is "impossible."
It's not that they have an obscene amount of toys. But when you're standing at the top of the stairs looking down at 50 alphabet blocks, half a dozen toy cars, 6 duplo blocks, and 2 dozen crayons that you swear are multiplying underneath the front doormat, what will take 15 minutes to clean up looks like it will take 2 hours.
And sometimes you just have to go have a cup of tea, write the day off as a disaster, and try to face the world again tomorrow.
Be brave, Annie. When they become teenagers their stuff won't get as far as the stairs. It will just lay in piles on the floor of their rooms!
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