All or Nothing
On the drive home from Saskatoon, Noah and I decided it was a good idea to get rid of the toys that the girls don’t play with anymore, since they were blessed with some new ones at Christmas.
Yesterday afternoon I went into their room to do just that.
I ended up moving furniture around, going through (and organizing) every.single.toy and clothing item, and vacuuming in places that normally don’t get vacuumed.
Noah walked into the girls’ room and just started laughing. “You can’t do anything half way, can you?”
Nope. I can’t.
I ended up with a big box of too-small clothes and toys that hadn’t been played with in a while (along with every single annoying McDonald’s toy I could find. Which is every one of the stupid things.)
Since the girls’ age gap is so large (5 years, 8 months, and 29 days), I did my best (when we first moved in) to make sure that Liliana can play in there freely, and Kaylie doesn’t have to worry about any of her belongings being destroyed. Kaylie’s dresser has a desk built on top of it, and most of her art supplies are in there. When the desk part is closed, Liliana cannot get into it. I also put a baby-proof cupboard closure on it, just in case.
The rest of Kaylie’s toys are in the closet that Liliana also cannot open. Yet. It may also gain a baby-proof cupboard closure soon.
As much as I hate cleaning, I love organizing. I actually enjoyed going though all their clothes and toys; putting like with like and making sure everything had a “home”.
In addition to moving furniture to strategic, space-saving places, I also saved space by getting rid of Liliana’s Pack & Play. Back in September we moved her into the Big Girl Bed for a couple nights, but her naps were just not happening. I couldn’t handle an un-napped Liliana and she wouldn’t stay in her bed for naps, so we put off the transition.
This is take two, and I hope it sticks. There’s so much playing space in their room now! Noah suggested that we get rid of the soother (which she only has at naps and at night) at the same time, but I like my sleep, so I think we’ll wait until she turns two for that one.
She slept GREAT last night. She even slept in. I was nervous about her nap this afternoon, though. After all the bumping and banging stopped, I checked on her.
This is what I found.
Um, that’s her - in the polka dots. I guess I didn’t tell her that she had to sleep in her bed. But, she slept a solid two and a half hours. I’ll let her sleep wherever she wants if she’s going to sleep that long.
Her favorite place to be, though, is on her big sister’s bed. The One Up High.
(She’s even learned the art of looking at the camera and saying, “Cheeeeese”!)
It makes me quite nervous, but I never leave the room (or the 5-inch radius around the top bunk) while she’s up there.
The kids have been playing in their newly organized room all day, with Dora breaks once in a while. Even with her clean room and new Christmas toys, Kaylie (lover of the outdoors) has been going a little nuts after being cooped up inside for the last month or so due to the -40 ish temperatures. Today it warmed up to about -10 and I finally let her go outside. She was ecstatic. There were even other kids out in the square for her to play with.
They spent about an hour cutting up snow with Kaylie’s snow saw and building an igloo. She finally came in when she could no longer feel her fingers, although I know she would have lasted a lot longer if she’d had thicker mittens.
I’m hoping, for her sake, that this “warm” spell lasts a bit longer. But if not, there’s always child labor. I know a toilet that needs to be scrubbed.
