On Rats and Children...

No, this isn't my house...but it certainly makes me feel better about my own! *wink*

Well, after almost 10 hours I finally emerged from the kids' rooms....

A-hem...

For two little people who entered this world buck-naked with nothing else but their cuteness, they sure do have a lot of junk! And I mean A LOT!

My mother says that their "pack-rattedness" is inherited -- though I maintain that I was never that bad. Still, perhaps that was because my mom isn't a keeper of much so she was on me more often than I am on them.

Yet, I am amazed at what they keep and where they choose to keep it.

What started as a small job of switching over last season's clothes became a huge undertaking of taming the toys.

As I sorted through all of it in Edward's room, I felt like I was getting buried in a mountain of LEGO, mini tires, Kid K'nex, bits of tissues, wrappers, and even the paper punch-out items from the back of his math workbook.

I was left asking myself: Who invented LEGO? And why didn't someone shoot him before it was marketed to small boys who haven't learned the art of tidiness and keeping it together in the plastic bin provided for him by his kind and thoughtful mommy and daddy?

It's evil.

Pure and simple.

Or it's a disease.

Either way, I'm convinced it was made merely to distribute whimsically all around the house to drive adults insane every time a piece lodges in their foot.

Every box and bin and crevice (including some in his sister's room) had pieces of LEGO. I think I'll dream in LEGO tonight.

All that aside, I never imagined I would be spending an entire day sorting through their stuff.

After I thought I'd tamed the LEGO...I discovered he also had a problem with keeping tabs on all of his Kid K'nex pieces. And then it was his Matchbox cars...and all the minions of sea creatures someone thoughtful had given to him in a tidy cylindrical container which merely served as a hatching ground. Perhaps I should have kept it and put it in the center of his room. Maybe the sea life would have migrated back to it.

And lest you think the girl's room was any better...it wasn't.

While she doesn't own gazillions of LEGO and Kid K'nex like her brother, she has her own vices.

Namely, Polly Pocket.

You know, I'm not a fan of Barbie. Never have been really, and especially not after someone warned me when Emily was still a baby to "just wait" for all those little bits and pieces that come with Barbie. I knew then and there to run away...run away very fast when someone offered to buy my daughter a Barbie doll.

Then came Polly Pocket.

No one warned me about her. But I'm convinced she has the same creator as LEGO...

Talk about tiny accessories....we're talking microscopic...and millions upon millions of them all hiding in the various nooks and crannies of my daughter's room.

I'm surprised the doll has anything left to wear.

So sorting the kids' clothing was simple compared with figuring out what to do with all the toys and various "stuff" in their bins, boxes, shelves, and desks.

Still, I made it work and got most of it under control before they had to go to sleep for the night.

*sigh*

Speaking of which, I'm off to bed...

I'm sure I'll be dreaming of Polly Pocket and her friends having a need for some kind of LEGO car or Kid K'nex building or Magnetix spacecraft.

Ugh.

And of course my little cherubs thanked me. They also paid me in leftover Halloween candies....they just don't know it yet.