Toy Explosion

Kaelyn and I have an issue. It happens everyday. Generally before noon. And continues until she nurses herself to sleep for the night around 8pm. I like to call it the toy explosion. I'm not sure how it happens or why it happens. I just know it happens. EVERY day. It starts out innocently enough. It's time to play. We get out a toy. All is well in the room. But as you may notice about kids, attention spans aren't all THAT long. So we get out another toy. Which gets tosses aside for a third toy. And so on and so forth until the explosion is complete. There's nowhere to crawl. There's no way to walk. There's nothing but toys toys toys. Or so it seems.

Perhaps that's why Kaelyn is sitting so close in this picture. She has no choice!! I must admit, Kaelyn has a buttload of toys. Sometimes I wonder how we play with them all three times a day and STILL get bored! But we do. Let me just explain, though, what I mean by toys. Toys can be light up fancy things that talk and make noise. Toys can be cute stuffed animals or books with flaps. Toys can also be the random jello box, a straw from a fast food place, or a junk mail magazine. Anything she's played with and enjoyed. Sometimes I dig through the box and think, well, she hasn't played with this in awhile, maybe I'll get rid of it. Kaelyn hears the way I think. She'll sneak up behind me (as best as a baby can sneak!) GRAB the toy from my hand (as best as babies can grab) and happily play with it for HOURS (which in baby time is a few minutes) therefore foiling my plan to get rid of the toy/straw/box/whatever. Oh, she's enjoying it again! I'll think. Better hang on to that!


Here's a picture of one of the bins in the family room. I don't have a picture of the actual toy explosion because I think I'd need some kind of wide angle lens or something, it's quite the sight. There is also a basket on the couch with toys and other assorted larger toys laying about that wouldn't fit in this bin. But what the picture shows is a VERY cleaned up area. Our definition of VERY cleaned up has definitely changed since Kaelyn's arrival!

So what to do about the toy explosion? Well, we have a toy box in the room. It's empty. It's too tall for Kaelyn to reach in and get toys so we pretty much use it to set toys on TOP of for her to throw off as a game. It's just easier to keep them out. I think the toy box is there in case we ever want to put the toys away. When we have a fancy dinner party or something. And since I don't really DO fancy, I'm guessing that NEED to REALLY put them away won't occur.

It's just that the room gets taken over. Soon there's nowhere to turn! I guess we could try to put the toys away after playing with them before getting a new one out, but then how do you GET to the ones on the bottom?! IT's quite the dilemma. Though if she's just sleep through the night, I don't think I'd complain about ANYTHING else! :)

YEp that's right, Kaelyn is 9 1/2 months old now and still not sleeping through the night. I thought 9 months would be magic because a couple of friends with kids said their kids just started sleeping through the night right at that mark. Not so much for Kaelyn, I guess. The pediatrician said she doesn't really NEED to eat at night anymore. I know she won't starve, that's for sure. But since she's not one to take a pacifier or ANYTHING else into her mouth, part of me still feels like she needs that sucking at night to go back to sleep. At least easily. I've tried not feeding her, only to be up an hour or an hour and a half and have a crabby baby the next day. I don't feed her if she gets up frequently or soon after going to bed, only if it's like 2 or 3am and has been awhile. Generally she'll go right back to sleep. I think teething is part of her issue at this time. Every now and then she'll get up and eat and then scream for an hour shortly after. A scream like she's in pain. Teething has been hard. That's when we just sit and rock and I listen to a movie to keep my mind off of her poor screaming!

I'm still hoping she'll learn to sleep eventually (sooner rather than later!!!) and all will be well. I don't want to have to just shut her in her room and walk away. She can REALLY cry and I don't think I'd last. SHe doesn't always know what's wrong or why she's awake, just that she needs me. So far I can't turn that away. I tried, I really did!! Oh well, I'm pretty sure by kindegarten...


In other news, Kaelyn has officially taken her first steps. She'll take 3-4 steps at a time before topping over or getting back down to crawl. She just needs more confidence and she's getting there! She has a couple of push toys that she catapults across the room behind She can really go with those! ANd she'll push just about ANY toy at this point, not even just the ones that are meant to be pushed! Her top teeth are really starting to come through too. I wish they would all just pop in overnight without any crying or pain for her. It just doesn't seem to work that way unfortunately for us all!

This evening Kaelyn has some topsy turvy issues. She's been really good at balancing but she must have had a little too much very berry banana at lunch because she's falling around more tonight. This is a picture of her falling as she lunges for the camera. She's so helpful when it comes to picture time. And supper time. And bath time. I could go on.

Someday Kaelyn will sleep. Someday Kaelyn will have all of her teeth. Someday we'll put the toys away and I'll miss the daily explosion. Now as I trip over toys and try to get up amongst the mess I pretend to mind but really, when the toys are scattered it just means Kaelyn has had a good time and in my book, that's all that matters.