Shopping for kids around two years old must be fun because our son received a lot more toys than I expected this Christmas. The toys themselves varied widely between battery-run, which talk non-stop, and old fashioned 1″ blocks. When we first brought them home I didn’t have the energy to do much else besides assemble them and toss them into a pile for him to scatter to the wind. Now that things have calmed down I’ve been able to organize them a bit more intelligently.

I’m resuming the, “one thing with small pieces out at a time,” rule. I broke it spectacularly right after Christmas and couldn’t really expect anyone else to follow it when there were 4-5 toys with small pieces strewn about the house. So far he doesn’t seem to mind. He’s much more interested in playing with my vacuum anyway, at the moment at least.

It took me a while to make the decisions, but I decided to put some of the toys away for our next child. Most of the toys I put away are still age appropriate for him but they’re not as good for his fine motor and gross motor development. I hate to think of it in those terms but when you have a child with low muscle tone you have to think about it that way. His play needs to require him to move and to develop better hand control in order for him to make progress.

Another tough decision, I had to decide to get rid of some of his books to make room for his new ones. It was sad to see them go but several of his pop-up books no longer popped up at all. Heads and other limbs were detached or just plain missing. Watching headless animals pop up at you eventually begins to feel less like you’re reading a kid’s story and more like you’re watching a horror movie.

With this last bit of organization over and the tree down it finally feels like the holidays are over. I’ll miss the celebration but not the work. I’m looking forward to Valentine’s Day and Easter. For us, those are less whole family oriented and more focused on the immediate family members. Less traveling and preparation will be a nice break from the Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years marathon.

I hope you all had a great holiday season!