Putting Toys Away

My furry kids know that their toys need to be put away before bedtime. Preferably in the toy box they never use. They have two options, they can get their toys picked up and out of the way on their own -or- I will take care of picking them up and put them all in the toy box. They don't like having to sort through the toy box to find the particular toy they're looking for, so having Mommy pick up the toys is not their favorite alternative.

I am a stickler for the toys being out of the way before bedtime for two reasons: the screaming monkey and Maks' chew toys. There is nothing quite like getting up half asleep in the middle of the night and stepping on the screeching monkey. The thing is loud and obnoxious and guaranteed to give an unsuspecting soul heart failure. As for those chew toys... have you ever stepped on a Lego in your bare feet? Chew toys aren't any better.

Lilly Ann is especially good at keeping her toys put away. Mainly because she is hiding them from Maks. Her favorite toys are the soft stuffed animals. She keeps them on her bed and hidden under my bed where Maks doesn't dare go for fear of her beating him up.

As for Maks, his favorite toys are the chew toys. We call them his "pacifiers". He has five of them. When he was younger, not being able to find a pacifier at any given moment meant something of mine was going to get destroyed. As long as there is a pacifier available, he doesn't touch anything else. So, I make sure there are always plenty available. Maks is not anywhere near as good as Lilly when it comes to putting his toys away. I end up tripping over them or stepping on them a lot. He gets yelled at for this a lot. And then the toys get put in the dreaded toy box where he has to sort through all of the unpopular toys to get his favorites back out.

This morning when I was getting ready for work I ended up laughing out loud and then getting the camera to take a picture. It hadn't dawned on me until this morning, but I haven't tripped over a chew toy once since I had surgery. It's been 6 weeks and Maks has been keeping his toys out of the way the whole time. I hadn't noticed.

What made me laugh? Maks has been hiding his toys out of the way under the rocking chair. Seeing them set neatly where they wouldn't get stepped on cracked me up. Evidently my dense boy CAN learn! And I was so oblivious I didn't notice for over a month. Tonight he had one of the chew toys out, gnawing away. When he decided he was done, he picked it up and put it neatly under the rocking chair. I'm still smiling. :)

Here is the pic I took this morning: