Pooh - we are done with you

Simon has a very tiny bedroom which is filled with far too many toys. I try to keep them all in categorized bins (Hot Wheels here, action figures there etc.) but it's getting to the point now where there is just too much to even try to put away properly. And Christmas is just around the corner. All the things on his Santa list are fairly big so it's time to try to find space for the new load that will come in.

What i usually do is clean up his room when I have a day off and he's in daycare so he doesn't see what I'm putting away into storage. Otherwise, he suddenly takes interest in toys he hasn't touched in a year and nothing can be put away because it's his 'favourite'. He's never even noticed anything missing when I do my biannual toy toss save for the Leap Frog basketball hoop (which is a baby toy) but he keeps bringing it back upstairs. I thought I was losing my mind at first - I'd see it upstairs and bring it back down and suddenly it would be back again in a couple of days.

I've already tagged what I know will get put away. Mr. Potato Head, a mega blocks pirate ship that he's NEVER played with, some very gigantic and impossibly complicated to put together Hot Wheels tracks, some old puzzles etc. I was talking to Rich about what I wanted to put away and Simon overheard me from the other room. One thing I need to get used to with a pre-schooler in the house is that they can overhear conversations from eight blocks away. When he asked what I was talking about, I flat out told him that we'd be putting some of his old toys away to make room for his new ones from Santa. I ran through the list and waited for the backlash, but he seemed totally fine with it. He then offered up ALL of his Winnie the Pooh books as well. I asked if he was sure because that makes up for a fair whack of his book shelf and he agreed. No more Winnie the Pooh for my boy it seems. I will miss the good times spent with Roo, Piglet and that rascally Tigger. Maybe I'll just keep them for myself. I don't think I'm ready to part with them just yet.

Goodbye Mary

I write this post with a very heavy heart. We lost one of this world's best souls on Monday, November 26. Maria Nitka Slowik, my dear mother in law, lost her battle with cancer and now rests in peace.

We all have so many nice memories of her - I loved all the stories that she used to tell me about her childhood in Poland, her first years in Canada and especially the stories about Richard and his siblings when they were kids. She was one of the toughest people I've ever met but her hands were always warm and soft, her hugs were always strong and her love was endless.

These past couple of years involved a very bad stroke, recovery and rehab, ovarian cancer, chemotherapy, a broken foot, orthopaedic surgery, rehab again and then lung and liver cancer. She remained a soldier through it all.

We were all shaken by the news, but seeing her suffer this past month was more than any one could take. She'd been through enough and knowing she is at peace now provides us with some small relief.

My heart breaks for Rich and his siblings who have become orphans in less than a year.

We will miss her more than I could ever express here.