Lest You Think We Are All Frowny Faces...

My pediatrician called late last night to let me know Mister Man has no visible fractures and should be walking better by Monday. He took a few steps in shoes this morning but has since returned to scooting around the house. Either way, I'm glad to know he shouldn't need any bandages.

And, as much as I complain, the Terrible Twos are not taking over our entire lives. But I make sure to have one Mommy Meltdown per week, just to keep Daniel on his toes. You know, the whole "you get to go to work tomorrow, but I have to do this all over again" kind of speech. Today I am much better.

One thing I have been working on to simplify our lives and help the kiddos get more into resourcefulness with their alone time - getting rid of toys. We have so many. Generous friends and family members have filled up our buckets and closets and shelves over and over again. But we've gotta let it go. Yesterday I filled up two garbage bags full of excess balls, things that take batteries and things that don't really lend themselves toward pretend play.

The result:

"Look Mom, I made a duck!"

As a parent, that is much more fulfilling than watching him push an actual plastic duck around the floor. And really, he wouldn't do that anyways. He'd just hold it for five seconds then follow me around, asking me to make up a game for him.

Notice I also put up our old gates to keep a certain nine month old from destroying his brother's towers.

An excerpt from my favorite book for this age, Making the Terrible Twos Terrific:

A child doesn't learn to do a lot with a little if his parents gift him with a lot of store-bought toys. Too many toys overwhelm a child's ability to choose a plaything and keep himself occupied. Too many toys prevent the emergence of imaginative play. Too many toys make it all but impossible for a child to learn to make do. Invariably, children who complain a great deal of being "bored," or having "nothing to do," are children who have been given too much. They can simply make no creative sense of the clutter of toys in their environments.

Thus, I will continue to pick and choose which toys stay and which toys go. And thus is why we are having a NO GIFTS birthday party when Andrew turns one. Sorry mom!