Tomorrow, I Declutter the Toys!

It's about that time of year. The time when I take stock of the kids toys and start getting rid of some in preparation for jolly Old Saint Nick to walk in through the garage and deposit gifts.

Tonight, I sent Caleb and Lorelei upstairs to pick up the huge mess they'd made. This was about 7:15. At 8:45, they weren't done yet. Yeah, the mess was that big. Caleb is a bucket dumper. Anything in a bucket or bin will eventually end up all over the floor of his room. And that's precisely what happened today.

So, we sent them to bed anyway because we'll hopefully have school tomorrow and I realized that I need to get my butt in there and declutter.

First on my list -- annoying McDonald's Happy Meal toys. They are totally fabulous in the car for a little while, but once they get in the house...I'm so done with them!

It's A Really Good Thing...

That Caleb has a room to go to when he does something bad. He has really overstepped it this time with his destructive behavior.

When Lorelei and I went to the mother/daughter pajama party last week, they took a digital photo of each mother/daughter. They then photo shopped, added text about the occasion and printed them on photo paper.

I got ours today when I picked Lorelei up from school and I was super excited. It was a super good picture of us, doing something together and absolutely perfect for scrapbooking...or at least it was....

Caleb took it upon himself to throw all of the paperwork I had on the coffee table all over the floor; picture included. I assume he was looking at the photo at some point and then threw that on the floor. He then stepped on the photo (glossy side to the floor), found it funny when it stuck to him, and ran around the downstairs about 4 times before I realized what he had stuck to his foot.

That nice picture...is now ruined. It has a hole in it, it's all bent...it's not even salvageable.

I am so angry. I sent him to his room and told him he better stay there for awhile. He thinks it's perfectly okay to ruin other people's things, but won't let Lorelei touch one of his toys. In fact, I'm so angry right now I'm honestly considering returning something we got him for Christmas -- possibly that DS he's been drooling over.

I have to go up and talk to him. I need to figure out a punishment. I'm still so mad that he ruined a good memory that I don't even know if I can do it calmly. I don't know why he thinks other peoples possessions are not worth respecting...

I do NOT think so!

Okay, so it's already close to six and I'm downstairs in the kitchen getting spaghetti started for dinner.

Caleb just came down and informed me that some kid named Alex at his school (and in his class) has threatened to "kick his ass". Now, okay, I'm pretty sure Caleb has heard the word ass, and probably even that combination of words used together, but I'm pretty darn sure, he wasn't making up what the kid said.

Obviously I tried to get a little more information on this, but the best I got was that this Alex thinks Caleb did something involving cutting something and now he plans to beat him up when they go back to school on Wednesday.

This mom will NOT tolerate such things. I suspect dad won't either. I will be in the school office on Wednesday morning having a little conference with Mrs. M---- and the principal. I will not tolerate threats towards my children for ANY reason from ANYone! EVER!