Toy Memories

Heidi and I spent some time this past Sunday sorting through our childrens' play room. Since Christmas, it's been a bit overrun and disorganized.

There were some things that were easy to part with. Most of those things made noise for no useful reason. We threw a lot of things away and sent a large number of things to various grandparents' homes. It was only fair. They had purchased most of the toys.

I didn't realize how hard it was going to be to go through some of it though. A lot of things actually had memories attached. It's hard to send away a cartoon character molded in plastic when it reminds you of one of the first times you ever made your youngest giggle. A silly happy meal stuffed rabbit was once a silly game of 'can Papa balance this on his head?'.

It was a rare moment of strength that allowed me to throw away a more recent plastic alligator chomper that Owen had very sweetly asked for during a summer zoo trip. It was broken, and I couldn't think of a way to repair it. It still stung as I dropped it into the trash can. It cost less than five dollars, but I'll always remember his considerate, non-assuming way of asking whether or not he might get such a thing for Christmas that year.

The room looks better. It's highly functional now, and we even made it harder for them to leave messy.

The boys, of course, revolted at first. They didn't like that the often unused, overstuffed toy box was now upstairs, and their organizer, once upstairs, now actually organizes downstairs. There was only one tantrum though, and it quickly gave way to a new appreciation for the functionality we had created. There were also a few questions about this or that specific toy, but in each case, those toys hadn't ever been played with. They had just sat around long enough to be familiar but without any real attachment.

All of this reminded me that, this stage is fleeting. It'll be gone all too soon. The sound of wood blocks clicking together, hotwheels and matchbox cars crashing on the floor, heroes and monsters molded in plastic… I'm going to miss it.