We don't do time outs around here.....

Part One
We moved into our current home shortly before Gage turned four. One of the expectations after he turned four was that every night his room would be clean (picked up by himself) before bedtime. The first few nights of this were slow going. It was a combination of getting distracted by the toys, laziness, and mostly milking a little more time before he had to go to bed. He was certainly testing the boundaries. So the third night he was lollygagging again and it was time to make the boundaries clear. See, I didn't have time for a time out. He was already trying to stay up past bedtime and that would have given him what he wanted! I told him, "I'm going to set a timer for 10 minutes. This means you have 10 minutes to clean your room. Any toys that are left on the floor when the timer goes off will be thrown in the garbage. Do you understand?" He did. He was given reminders that time was ticking but when the timer went off after the ten minutes there were still a ton of toys on the floor.

I grabbed a garbage bag and began filling it up. He began to ask, "You're really throwing them away? In the garbage cans............NOOOOO!!!!! Tomorrow is garbage day, they'll go in the cinerator!!!" (translation-incinerator, have you seen Toy Story 3??) I knew it was going to be devastating. Even I was devastated!! He was crying and yelling. I had to throw away the brand new Buzz Lightyear he had just received for his birthday days earlier (sorry Aunt Sam). He cried himself to sleep that night.......but by morning-he was over it. Don't get me wrong-he has never forgotten that episode, but that's what I wanted. Because for nearly two years, I haven't had to do it again.

I know I should have donated the toys-you don't have to tell me that. In that moment-they needed to be gone immediately, not put in my trunk for added drama when we dropped them at the church. The story needed to end that night, so to the "cinerator" they went!

Part Two
For the first time in nearly two years, the room was not clean when the timer went off. It was the second issue with Gage's room in one week (the first was that when he was getting ready and could not find ONE PAIR of matching shoes). As I assessed the situation I realized he literally didn't have room in his toy bins to put it all away. I don't even buy toys with the exception of birthdays and Christmas so I couldn't figure out where this had all come from. I started looking through his toy bins and realized it was mostly garbage-things I had asked him to take out to the recycle bin. A cardboard box- "Don't throw that away Mom, I use it to be the garbage man", bottle caps-"No Mom, those are coins for my pirate treasure chest", dryer sheets-"those are flags for my pirate ships" and so on. I LOVE his imagination but I honestly felt like we could have been in an episode of Hoarders. Thank God there was nothing wet or smelly.

This was what he had......look at his proud face

It was so much more than this. We found a shoe that had been missing for several weeks, and 17 missing socks! There were hundreds of tiny Legos and puzzle pieces that fell to the bottom. So we spent almost three hours choosing our favorite toys and re-organizing the bins while Gracie napped. He only got teary-eyed once and I was pleased with how easily he let things go. Now we're down to a few of his favorite toys....and when he's pushing boundaries they can visit the "cinerator" once again.


Last week my neighbor friend Chrissy (who I just think is amazing for so many reasons) spent some time working with me and my camera. I've been using my new skills and will post some in the next few days. If you haven't read her blog, Life with Greyson & Parker go check it out!! You will feel better having done so. See the reflection in the window here?

 
That's her-clapping her hands and doing the silly dance so Gracie would smile. Gracie's not really smiling but she is showing off one of her new teeth!

Earlier this week we had Gage's kindergarten assessment where they just quickly test his readiness. That will be tomorrow's post because I don't want to forget it!!

Love.