"One Toy In... One Toy Out"

Its a philosophy that I've tied to live for many years now as I always find that Mikey's toys get so piled up. Sometimes, though, when I bring in a new toy its hard to find something that he has stopped playing with and we end up stockpiling things.

At about 3 a.m. this morning I woke up as I had to go bathroom.  I laid back down in my bed but could not sleep as I felt Mikey's toy room calling me.  Tomorrow is Christmas and we are going to be adding a bunch of new toys and I had not gotten around to going through his toys and deciding what should go.  In all honesty, I have been putting it off because this year I knew it would be too easy to find the toys that he is no longer playing with.

Somewhere between last Christmas and this  year, Mikey's tastes in toys that he plays with have changed.  He prefers the Wii to the Little People, real cooking in the kitchen to his play kitchen and toys, puzzles over simple button toys, remote control cars over matchbox cars...etc.  Thankfully he still plays... but there were so many things that I was able to pack away.  I moved the playroom around to allow more space to play the Wii as so many of the large toys were removed.

Mikey woke up this morning and was THRILLED with the changes.  I'm sure he will be even more excited when we fill the space that I created with his new drum set.  Its always wonderful to watch and be a part of his reactions but this year I'm feeling like I've lost my baby.

I think back to the title of this blog and the time we spend at red lights and I find myself wondering if I stayed long enough at the red lights or if perhaps I got lost in th business of the world and became impatient for the green lights again.  Have I lived the lessons that Mikey was meant to teach me?  Do I need to refocus?  Lots of questions these days...