Messy Boys

This is a sight that drives me crazy!

All of the bins that can house our millions of tiny toys are pulled out and spread across the floor, there are Playmobil and Lego pieces all over the place and I swear the Nerf darts are mating and producing baby Nerf darts.  You may also note from the above photo that books have been pulled out of the book case in order to free a cubby for random acts of Lego building, and the game shelves are a disaster.  You really would risk your life to free Monopoly from the pile.

But....I'm so glad I have this mess today.

The boys are getting older and I know one day soon the Lego men will be all dusty and the Nerf darts will eventually decompose in the place where they last lay.

I'm sure it won't be tomorrow or this summer, but one day, the Playmobil guys will be gone and I won't injure my foot when trying to make my way through the Lego mines in Gabe's room.

So today, I'm happy for this mess and I'm sure happy that my boys still play.

I spent about two hours this morning cleaning the boys' rooms.  They are required to clean their rooms once a week but every few months I have to get in there and see what is really going on.

Today I found matchbox cars in Eli's room.  He claims he doesn't need any toys in his room anymore but he sure enjoys playing with them now and then!  Other than that I usually just find piles of socks, stuffed animals and trash in his room.  He just tosses garbage on the ground instead of throwing it away.  Perplexing.

Gabriel's room is a whole different story.  That kid is a little thief and hider.  I found 6 ball point pens in there!  Six.  Meanwhile down stairs I have to scrounge for a crayon to sign my name on permission slips.  I also found wrappers from candy he no doubt sneaked in there, socks in all sorts of bins and corners of the room, boxes, flashlights, and dice .... all over the place dice.  I'm not sure what his issue is with dice but he snatches dice all the time and then apparently throws them to every corner of his room.  Gabe also has a plethora of Lego pieces, Playmobil parts, tires, cars, note pads, costumes and everything else under the sun stashed away in his room.  The child is a complete mess.  

I often do my thorough cleanings to see what I can discard, what toys the kids are no longer playing with.  Based on today's assessment, my guess is the only items in their rooms that they are not using are their trash cans and laundry baskets.

Let them play.  Let them make a mess.  Let them dream and imagine themselves in a different world.  Let them leave the toys out so they can resume their play the next day and the day after.  Let them clean their room for 4 hours, equally getting toys out and putting toys away, while dressed as Batman.  The days are short, so I say, let them play.