On To New Issues

This was our old PMA (Permanent Mess Area).

My youngest is eight-years-old, a veritable Methuselah when viewed through the lens of the guy dealing with diaper issues. My son uses the toilet and feeds and (generally) dresses himself. 

Today I discovered the new maturity of my kids by noting the downstairs toy area has stayed neat for a while, perhaps weeks. A few years before every time the toys were straightened up such was an irresistible invitation to play.

Somewhere LSS read that stacking cups or boxes were crucial to a child's development, so we had multiple sets. I've since rotated them out of the line-up. Every time I think of them I think of the hours and hours I spent retrieving them, looking for the right set, putting them away. I believe I could have graduated from law school with the time spent.

I'm pretty happy with the way things are going, bigger kids, more complex problems. Last night was difficult in that one kid was unhappy, while the other had a dehydration issue at 2:00 am that only a parent could solve. Today I took a moment to reflect and took heart with the notion that the toy area was neat and those blasted stacking cups were gone. Hooray!