Our home, an extension of "Toys R Us"

Before I became a parent and I used to visit people already parents, I would come home and say to Brendon "If we ever have children there is no way any of their stuff will be scattered from one end of the lounge to the other. That is what their bedroom is for!" I was clueless. This is how it began. In the beginning Owen's room was created. Very neat, everything having its own place. Needless to say that room was never slept in for 5 months. Owen first set up camp in mom & dad's room for the first months of his life. Because it was convenient we also set up a camp cot in the lounge with a few toys in it. As time went by and he became more active and enjoyed morning time in the bed with mom & dad I noticed a couple of toys creep in and take their place on the bedside tables. When he was too big for the baby bath he progressed to the bathroom, bath toys in tow en mass. Laundry time (which takes place between 5.30am and 6.30am every morning, yes, including Sundays) became a concoction of plastic coat hangers and whatever was in his hand when he was picked up and taken up stairs to the loft. Then came time to move on to sitting in his feeding chair, again, a stash of toys in strategic places. Lets not forget to mention the lounge which came accessorised with a duvet to prevent bumps on the head, the ball-bak complete with 100 balls... and the list goes on. So to conclude: every room in the house besides our dressing room and the downstairs toilet is delightfully arrayed with Owens presence.



So Sunday Operation: "Toy control" took place. Date: 31 August 2008. Time: 07h00. Place: The lounge. Attendees: Mom & Owen. I decided that the first item that needed to be tamed was the camp cot (which had become a dumping ground for all his toys) All the toys out. I don't ever remember buying all the stuff. But that's how it begins, doesn't it. So now we had an empty camp cot and so I began the task of disassembling it. Time: 07h20 - by this time I was pushing the odd bead of sweat & scratching my head. Who invented this contraption. It must have been a man. Firstly, woman would never make something so complicated and secondly, no woman would have the enduring interest of assembling and disassembling this item. I suddenly had a flashback to when Douglas and Brendon first set this up. I remember chuckling to myself and thinking they looked like "Dumber & Dumber". Mmm. Maybe it did take some grey matter after all. Anyway, it was half disassembled and I thought that is it I am done!5 minutes later I refused to be beaten and had a bash at it again. This time I wriggled every movable part there was to wriggle and "vole" magic, it collapsed into a neat little rectangular shape on the floor. Owen was still engrossed in the activity even though he has the attention span of a gnat. Next was to get it in the bag. Heave hoe, in it went, along with the pipes and some other item. I was very pleased that I got the wheels in the right way round too but alas the zip wouldn't shut properly. Oh well, I had done my best and left it on the step for Brendon to put upstairs in the loft. Final conclustion: There are some things that just don't go back in the way they came out!