We kicked him out. And then Nurse Cathy shot him.
That’s right. We kicked the little guy out of his room this weekend. And he couldn’t be happier.
My February resolution of a master bathroom redo morphed instead into a bigger project, but much more worthy project: a new playroom for the boys to share.
And…it is blissful.
Their embarrassingly large accumulation of toys was taking over my office, the entire main floor, some of the basement, part of the garage, and seeping into the bathrooms and cars.
Now everything has a spot or a bin (or a space in my car for either the donation spot or the consignment store).
Remote controlled things are ready up there, like an army.
These guys are ready to battle them.
And Ernie in swim trunks? Well, he’s just my favorite. How cute is he? I found parts of him all over and put him back together again. Humpty Dumpty’s got nothing on the Ernster.
There’s a spot to read.
It gets used quite a bit so far. Especially while learning why Dinosaurs Love Underpants. Oh sorry. Of course I meant “underpanth.” (I’m loving his bedhead; aren’t you?)
There’s a special spot to squish the Todd-Helton-the-cat.
And a spot to rock out. Yes, we have enough instruments to start a small band, complete with a High School Musical microphone, drums, keyboard, acoustic and electric guitars, an xylophone, and a couple harmonicas.
Who wants to come play?
But now it’s all nice and tidy and in organized toy containers. And those containers will soon be getting labels, to keep it tidy. And also soon? That big, blank wall will house artwork from those little fingers and creative imaginations.
There are even two bins full of superhero costumes. Oh, and let’s not forget that lion one. That’ll be coming back out soon, I think.
This is one of the many train track sets we’ve acquired.
It’s awesome. It doesn’t fall apart if you lean on it a little and it’s easy to snap together. Highly recommended, if you’re in the market.
I think it’s a fave.
There are two bins plus a shelf for puzzles…
And a bit more space for the plethora of books.
I’m a bit alarmed at how quickly this accumulation happened. But mostly? These boys have been extremely blessed. They are very, very loved by friends and family, and believe it or not, an awful lot of these things have come to us secondhand, via consignment stores, or Craigslist. Such a great way to reuse, but still working on the “reduce” part.
Now what about that “shooting” part?
Today was the two-year-old checkup for the smallest one. Observations?
- He’s 96 %ile on height, but 30 %ile on weight.
- He is really quite talkative. Der. As in, he should be stringing two words together, yet somehow we’re up to paragraphs stringing together. He’s a talker.
- He knows his colors and will school you on them.
- He likes doing some bizness on the potty. Yippity skippity!
- He’s in a big-boy bed. And is now sharing a room with big bro.
- He can’t stop saying that “Nurth Catheeee shot mah ahm.” That ticked him right off. But she totally made up for it with a fire truck sticker. Well, almost totally. I promised him some chocolate milk, too, and that pretty much dried him up…until tonight at dinner time when he stripped off his shirt (no, I don’t know why), and saw the band-aid, and then he starting crying again and yelling about that Nurth Catheeee.
- He’s trying to pop a couple more molars through on his bottom row of little minion teeth.
After a very nice and information and productive and opinionated and loud checkup, we soothed and loved and hugged and tucked up together for a bit of a snooze in that big boy bed. It was precious, I tell you. The super secret part, the very quiet part? How he nestles his head into my chest and shoulder and fits perfectly. How warm and right it feels there, in that space with him. And how he throws one leg and pudgy, round foot over my belly to make sure we stick together through that nap of his. And mine, as it were.
When I’m there, in that space, it’s like a treasure. He’ll soon be too big and then grown and married with his own amazing creatures napping on him, and I’ll still have this memory, this super duper extra special part of breathing in time and resting deeply and completely and so, so safely.
And after that nap, we went back into the playroom to study our feet together.
And of course, partake in a nice afternoon read.
Happy Tuesday.
And watch out for that Nurse Cathy.