Growing Up is Hard to Do

This morning Ben and I went through the bedrooms, basement, and playroom looking for things we could get rid of. We have way too much stuff in this house which has led to unorganized chaos and things just piling up everywhere. Most things don't have an actual place since there is no room so we decided it was time to get rid of things we could do without.

We now have a bunch of bags of clothes to donate. I still need to go through clothes that the boys have outgrown and decide what needs to be donated, thrown away, kept or given to friends. We found a few "baby" toys to give to Madelyn along with a bunch of things to give to Kyle. The boys were helpful in deciding what things from the playroom we should get rid of. But once Zak saw the pile of "baby" toys going to Madelyn and Kyle he started to show concern. We were very clear that they were all "BABY" toys, but at one point Zak told me "Mommy, I baby. Need baby toys for me!". He is learning that it is hard to grow up, but tomorrow he won't even remember since he has a playroom filled with new "big boy" toys. Finally, he decided he could share his toys with Madelyn and Kyle.

We had borrowed Rich's white truck the other day so we took advantage of that and filled it up with stuff for Ben to take to the dump. We got rid of the old fencing we still had in the backyard. When Ben started to take it to the truck we discovered that many bugs, insects and other animals had started to make a home for themselves under the wood....

We also got rid of all of the wood and other trash Ben had accumulated from taking the bar apart which was in the basement. Then we had a few bags of random broken or outgrown toys along with some other odds and ends to go to the dump. While Ben loaded the truck I put all of the "baby" toys in our car that we were taking to Madelyn and Kyle which caused Zak to have another meltdown, but we once again reminded him he was now a big boy. Once everything was loaded in the vehicles we all left the house. Ben went to the dump and then his mother's house while the boys and I ran a few errands.

First, we went to downtown Annapolis to pick up the pottery that my mom & I painted on Ladies' Night at Clay Bakers last week. They both turned out so good and the boys love them! While I am talking about them I wanted to add in that we may have made a slight breakthrough with potty training. Recently, we have discovered that the boys enjoy collecting money (aka change) and putting it in our big bank. So today once we got home we told the boys if they peed or pooped on the potty they would get to put 1 coin in their new banks. All afternoon Zak did so good with peeing on the potty and putting him coin in the bank. He did poop in his underwear once, but any progress is good progress! Ryder even peed on the potty once in order to get a coin.

After picking up the pottery we stopped by Chelley's apartment to drop off a few things for Madelyn. Once again Zak got upset because he wanted to "share" the toys with Maddie and play with her, but I didn't take them out of the car which made him mad. We then picked Ben up from his mom's house and went to Arundel Mills to have lunch at Chevy's. The boys behaved so good during the meal that we let them have their free ice cream cone....

After we walked around the mall for a bit we headed to Tracy & Dave's house to drop off all of the clothes and toys for Kyle. Zak was very excited to show Kyle all of the toys he brought for him. The boys had fun running around their house and playing with all of the baby stuff Kyle has. It is hard to tell the boys they don't play with baby stuff because they still fit into most of the baby toys! They had fun sitting in the Bumbo chair and lounging in the "baby" chairs. While at their house we got to watch Kyle roll over which was fun. After being there for a while the boys started to get cranky and crazy so we headed home.

As we were pulling out of their community Zak got very upset and told us that we forgot his toys. We once again had to explain he was now a big boy and baby Kyle was going to use his "baby" toys. That poor kid has such a rough day watching most of his baby toys leave the house and go to other babies.