Rooms are made for cleaning, and that's just what I'll do

Hayden's birthday is fast approaching (in only 3 months now) but I am having it way early around the end of April- beginning of May to accommodate his Great Grandma coming to visit. This will be her first time meeting Hayden and I am so excited that I wanted her here to experience his b-day. Meaning I have even less time to book a location, plan a party, do invites, and much more when I am already swarmed with responsibilities. (Adding more to the ever growing to do list). One of the many things I have been meaning to do is go into Hayden's overstocked room and toss some of his toys. This child of mine has so many toys it is crazy, he just about plays with only a quarter of them and to think he will be getting them by the truck load come his birthday, they really needed to be thrown.
I buckled down and told myself:
Subconcious :"Mia, this will be the last week with Hayden's room having so many unused toys. "
Mia: "But I'm tired..."
"SO! I'm tired of his room being overcrowded with toys that you can donate!"
"But some are from infancy, maybe I will have another kid that can play with them."
"AH! When you go back to school for a career then we will talk other kids, but for now we can't carry all these toys. Now TOSS!!"
"But-"
"No buts, only work and results. Now 'git.' "
*sigh*
And David and I tackled the forest that is Hayden's room.

Prior to our early spring cleaning, Hayden's room had been thrashed. I'm talking hurricane status. The how and why I'm not exactly sure but it was horrible.



See this messy room

Hayden is used to getting his room cleaned as he helps Daddy clean it every night before bed. And I totally LOVE this age, hehe. We told him we were "cleaning" his room in case he threw a fit from h#!L to save his toys. But he was cool about it. He took to "cleaning" very well helping put some toys in my donation bag (a bag trash bag), helping Daddy organize the room that Mommy wrecked even more, and putting his trash in the trash. It was very fun for him...






He played with some of his untouched toys



He Climbed like crazy, whether it was onto his stepping stool to just to jump off again or from his stool to his buzz ride on and back up again (he made a really fun (for him) but scary (for mommy) game out of this.


Out of like thirty minutes of cleaning, tossing away toys (it is amazing how many toys a child can get from infancy to their 2nd year), reorganizing, and straightening up we did it - we did it- we did it!


A clean room! That is not as crowded

Now for his closet...

A Mother's work is never done, but I can put it off until at least next week, can't I? And God help me once I get the courage and strength to redo my room, probably around Easter if I can put it off that long.

Hayden decided to...

I haven't forgotten everyone out there in blog land. Nope I have only been chasing about a toddler, trying to keep house and knock out work. I know aren't we all...but I did manage to snap a few Kodaks or is it Canon's now, whatever, of my little guy. And instead of posting a billion pics, making an eternally long post I put it in a slide show titled "Hayden decided to." This chronicles my week starting with the 23rd of January until now of things Hayden decided to do. From being a cowboy to Mommy's great pretender, this boy has been quite busy setting Mommy's belly on fire with laughs and giggles.

Hayden Decided to... - create a slideshow

*Sigh*

Hayden today decided that chips go better on the floor than in your tummy



Rather quickly though I'm sure he realized the error of his ways


Because he sprinted for the hallway like his tail was on fire and gave me the most guilty- I'm sorry- look he could muster


And Mommy melted like butter of course...

Sigh...

The Things I was going to do

As humans, everyone has an ever-growing to-do list. But as a Mom you have the"ever-growing-to-do" list. Things get added to this list with the knowledge that a toddler is unpredictable, resulting in little things amongst the day that get added.

Things like the following are common. You have laundry to do, you also think of getting it folded and stored the same day (never happens for me), and the toddler descends upon your newly cleaned laundry, tossing it everywhere but the basket, giggling happily. To do: "put laundry in basket and place basket in a toddler safe zone. " Or you have the toddler help clean his/her room, put him down for a nap, stroll into the kitchen where bright red crayon is etched on your fridge displaying your toddler's stick figure scribble. This is the scribble that tots claim so matter of factly is a "flower" but it looks as if someone hired a drunk artist drew on your fridge. To do: "Clean fridge, put crayons in toddler safe container."

That stuff I have prepared for, what I never expected is the adult "why do you keep putting this off" to do list. Now this I seem to be a master at.

I was supposed to fold the laundry instead I sat at my computer, watching old Jon and Kate plus 8 episodes (guilty pleasure).

I was supposed to take a much-needed nap (will get into why I needed a nap at 3:00 in the afternoon on another post) but I ended up making an AOL account and this Blog. Sorry Yahoo, you have officially been abandoned for Gmail and AOL.

I was supposed to be penning writing samples and instead I read on copy writing.

I was supposed to start potty training Hayden. I printed out a custom-made rewards chart, tacking it on the bathroom wall. I see it every time I go in there but it never seems to don on me: oops, you really should be at least doing some bare minimum stuff. P.S. Hayden is so ready to be trained it knocks me back, I thought I had at least 6 more months of my cloth bummed "baby." No its I who am not ready. Some tire of changing bums, I am not immune either but it's a fair trade to me if I can simply keep this last stage; This last sign and clue of his infancy for a little bit longer.

I was supposed to clean today. The house following the Holidays has been deeply neglected and was in shambles. Instead I turned in for a very early nap, relinquishing all parental duties and house keeping over to my husband.

I am far from perfect, I am a neat freak with OCD tendencies I am only starting to notice with the follow through of an infant. I know that I am making things harder in the long run, equipped with bigger and longer jobs rather than small, shorter jobs. I seem to be putting so many things off lately, maybe sometime this year I will learn, maybe not but what I have learned is that I need some major me time. So that I am not like "laundry, caring for Hayden, cleaning! That is all my life is!" I'm thinking if I step back I will come like a million times more willing to get things done, stopping only getting things planned.

My fingers are crossed and tomorrow I really need to get this laundry stored. Easier said than down with a toddler running about.

New Season, New Changes

With the start of Autumn quickly on my heels, I have set out to make some major changes. Autumn's official date to begin is the 23rd of September and I already see the changes of the season happening all around me. The tree above my patio leaves' started to turn earlier this month. Today I went outside to find some leaves already falling onto my patio much to my excitement and dismay. I am extremely, EXTREMELY excited to see Autumn coming in, but with that tree over my patio that means another half a year of picking up leaves (dry and wet) from my patio. Not fun to say the least. But an added plus to the season is an excuse for me to go shopping for some super cute winter clothes for my ever so often growing boy.
And within those changes, I wish to so something Eco-friendly once a week in my effort to do my part in keeping Mother Earth nice, and to teach my son,Hayden, to do the same. Thus, every Monday write a post of what Eco-friendly thing I did the week prior, entitled "Eco Monday."
As I've stated in my last few posts, I really wanted to do some major house cleaning and rid my house of things I'm not using. And this week I finally did it (well, kinda.) I went through only my living room closet, that was packed full of books, antiques, and various papers and so forth. Still I got a lot done: from that closet alone I got a box filled with books that will be donated, lots of papers to recycle and another box documents that got shredded. The antiques were sorted through and I did find some that I wished to keep and others that were to be too donated. Even with only tackling one closet, I feel so elated and happy that I got some things in my very overcrowded house gone.
The end results: The books that I got rid of made space for me to pack up books that were on a bookshelf of mine and give it to Hayden for his ever growing book collection. Also giving my many books a new lease on life and to be one day ready by another buyer. If the thought that doesn't make me smile, nothing else...well, besides Hayden.