When I got up Sunday morning, Grandpa was already up, as was the bright eyed, full of energy, two year old Analyse. It didn't take long for Grandpa to take me up on my suggestion for him to go back to bed. We had no clue how many times Elliot had woke his parents up during the night, but they were currently all sleeping. I hoped to allow them to continue to do so. My challenge became to keep diverting Ms. Analyse from wanting them to get up, and from wanting to see the "BABY!".
I decided to get started on the project for Byron. I figured she'd need to see what all I was doing. I knew that with her assistance, I was taking a big chance on not getting very far very fast. But if I did make a little progress AND was able to keep her occupied, it was a win!
You know how those type of rearranging projects always go. You have to move the stuff from point A, temporarily to point C, until you move the stuff from point B to point A, so that you can then put the stuff from point A into point B. And there was a lot of 'stuff'!!
In the beginning, point A contained both of the bookcases. One of which held one of the fish tanks. Both of which had large plastic bins in front of them, overflowing with toys and stuffed animals. So I started with both of them. Humm... where to put the overflowing stuffed animals? I wanted them out of the way enough that they could be navigated around. A place where they might end up staying the entire day, depending on what all happened once everybody was up.
I chose one of their full size couches. The first couple I just tossed on there. But then I got curious, just how many stuffed animals did this girl have anyways? Mercy! So I started lining them up the length of the couch. Squeezed tightly together. And then smaller ones sitting in front of larger ones. And some balanced on the back of the couch. And along the arm rests. And... "My goodness, how can she already have so many of them?!?" I learned that they weren't actually all hers. Many of them had been her aunts and her mom's when they were young. They'd never finished moving them out of the apartment. Awww.
Shortly after I had started, I had uncovered the dolly that we had gifted to Analyse at Christmas time. (You can see it sticking out of her stocking HERE.) Analyse had snatched it up ever so excitedly, played with it a couple of minutes, and then taken it off to show it to her imaginary friend in the mirror. She's so cute to watch - playing in front of the full length mirror on the outside of their bathroom door!
By the time she returned to where I was working, I had every single stuffed animal dug out of both bins lined up down that couch. you should have seen her eyes pop! And the excited exclamations she made. And then starting at one end, she worked her way down the couch touching and saying "Hi!" to EACH AND EVERY stuffed animal. Some got just a "hi". Other got a 'very excited to see you' type of "Hi!". It was cute. And comical. And endearing. And took up quite a bit of time. This grandma got a whole lot more done while all of those greetings were going on. ;-> "I love it when a plan comes together". (chuckle, chuckle)
My minds question of "I wonder what she'll do once she's finished her way down the couch" was answered by her walking back to where she had started. All of those ones which had received the warmer "Hi!'s", were individually pulled out and played with before she would return them somewhat to their spot and move on to the next one. Adorable! And time consuming. And from her perspective - fun!! :-)
By the time everybody else got up, I had all of the regular toys together in one of the bins, almost all of one of the bookcases emptied (the 'stuff' organized in stacks in their dining room), and thus had made great headway in to the 'project'. Plus, I had kept Analyse occupied and happy for a few hours. "Wins" all the way around ;-)
No, I was not able to take pictures of her and her stuffed animal friends. Sorry. But I can close my eyes and see the cuteness of all of it. Smile producing memories!!!
That is funny... It always amazes me when I clean my little ones room the hours he will then spend in there playing as if it were all new toys!
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