Rearranging...

I'm writing tonight in my new favorite place... In the hallway, with the corner of one eye on Will the Brute, as he is trying to go to bed. He did SO well with the big boy bed in the very beginning, and now I sit here like the gatekeeper, stoically reminding Will to get his butt back in bed as he inches his way out, thinking he's a sly little monkey. And it has to be in a stoic tone because yelling and screaming doesn't work with him. He thinks its funny when I'm ready to pull my hair out after we've spent 2 hours trying to get him to bed. Once we figured out that the madness technique didn't work, we're down to a cool 40 min or so. Tonight, it looks like we might have hit a new record at 30 minutes! Holy Cow! And I only had to put him back in bed twice. I think I deserve a coffee to celebrate!

Anyways...

Let me start this out with a warning...If you like any kind of order in your life, do not buy an ABC foam mat for your kid. When Costco started putting out kids toys in preparation for Christmas, I thought I would be awesome and pick one up. It was one of the thicker mats, which I liked, and had nice colors, and was only $25. Woot!

It's been in his room for 2 weeks and it's a wreck. It is constantly torn apart and it drives me crazy! I like to put everything away and in order once Will goes to bed so I can start the next day fresh... I can't quite do that with this since it's in his room & I can't exactly rummage around when he's gone to bed for the missing "O" middle... It's driving Hubby crazy too. But Will LOVES it and is learning letters, so I guess it stays. Today, he pulled the S out as I cringed, but he said "sssssssss". I said "Yeah! That's an S. Like Spiderman!" - He's obsessed with Spiderman and Iron Man all of a sudden. I have to say, it's a welcome break from Mickey and his gang, and all three Toy Stories that I can recite in my sleep.

So... since the puzzle-mat-of-death and new play tent Santa brought him went in his room, my rocking chair needed to find a new home.

I am so glad that I stuck to my guns and got the rocking chair I really wanted. It had to be fully upholstered because I had this weird fear of Will hitting his head on wood arms while I was nursing him. Plus, having something fully upholstered seemed to be easier to transfer from room to room as Will outgrew the baby things.

So on New Year's Eve, I was putting the Christmas decor away and took our sad crispy tree down to the dumpster. Then it was rearranging time, after a whole lot of vacuuming. I even found pine needles in my bra later that day!

First I tried the chair over here. I love my chair. It's so comfy! But having it squared out with the sofa just felt so ... square. It was the practical spot, but it wasn't working for me.

Option #2 was the winner. There was this blank space in this corner and I could never figure out what to put there. A tall fake tree? A lamp? A giraffe? I had no clue. The chair with my awesome little table is perfect. Buzz has also found a new home in the chair.

Here's angle 2. My little monkey is watching some Iron Man after he hurt himself. Nothing like some super hero action to change your mood. And thank goodness my red bins have since been moved back to my storage unit (aka Mom & Dad's garage).

While he napped, I went through his toys since there was no way the old and new could live in perfect harmony in our limited space. I like things to be put in their bins at night... This was not working for me:

Bin on the far left was home to all of the balls. Bin in the middle became home for action figures. Bin #3 was home to cars. I emptied the cubby on the right and that is home to all of his books and new Tag Jr, which he is really diggin'! The box of stuff at the bottom of the picture is now living in the closet. I'll rotate some of them back in. And if we have another crazy rainy week, then I'm sure some "new" toys will help keep the cabin fever to a minimum.

Oh and the bin on the far right is home to stuffed animals. I just kept the ones he plays with on a regular basis.

Ah...so nicely organized. Too bad that was the 1st and last time they were so separated like that.

A close up of the book area.

A sigh of relief as everything is in it's place... Now I'm just happy when it makes it into any bin and just is off of the floor.

Do you cycle through your kids' toys when they get a whole new haul for Christmas? For the older kids, do you let them pick some things to get rid of? What's the method to your madness?