Friday, July 18, 2008

Photo Story Friday: Operation Mean Mom

Remember my little Whine Fest yesterday (regarding legos/K'nex and my messy house, among other things)? Well, whining has never accomplished anything.

So this morning, while the boys were watching Caillou, I gave them a warning. "In a half hour, I will be collecting all of the K'nex and Legos that are one the floor" And when neither one of them moved, I devised my plan. Operation Mean Mom had begun. So I told them at the beginning of Curious George, that when George is over, the television will go off and we will begin cleaning up. In the mean time, I would begin going through some of the junk bins. I would make the decision as to what would be thrown away.















When Noah saw the garbage bag come into the living room, he sprang into action. I gave him a plastic bucket for all of the things he wanted to keep and he began. He then took the bin of thing and DUMPED them all on top his train table in his room. A start...














Does anyone else get a satisfaction from a bag FULL of miscellaneous pieces heading to the trash? I am not talking about BIG toys, but the various burger toys, missing game pieces, and other little useless junk.

So begins our adventure. I told the boys that they need to each pick up 5 things. I gave them each a list.



















About half hour later, Noah is ready to proclaim that he is...(read his sign)














I helped with the entire process as a way to help him work toward being able to do it all himself, but Mean Mom is asserting herself in one way. The bin of legos, K'nex, and mini pop beads each need to be EARNED back with 10 tickets apiece. Sorry to those of your that got them for Noah for his birthday, but something HAD to be done.














I'll let you know when he gets them back.

By the way, Does anyone have any suggestions about what to do with all of the INSTRUCTION BOOKLETS that go along with the building sets? They don't stay with the sets, but I know the boys will want them eventually.

Now to tackle the laundry...unfortunately, that's all me :(

10 comments:

Whitney said...

Kristi, I have taken a binder for the instruction sets and put them in folders. It works great. Glad to hear cleaning went well...:)

Amy Plumb said...

Mean mom got the cleaning done that's good. Now nice mom can come back. lol

About the books, I always put them in the bottom of the tub of the legos so I knew where it was.

Good luck!

Courtney said...

No advice for you, but I'm glad the boys sprung into action and Noah is "dun"!

Mom Knows Everything said...

I love bins! There are the best way to organize toys.

www.frogparenting.blogspot.com said...

My kids are away at Grandma and Grandpa's so I am cleaning their rooms while they are gone, and they say they will be happy to come home to a clean organized room!
I hope I get it all done!

Becky L said...

I like being able to clean up and get rid of ridiculous toys that we just don't use or need.

Becky said...

I do enjoy getting to go through and clean out all the 'junk' in the toy box and my sons drawers (this includes weeding out the too-small clothes) and getting it out of my house.

Good job on getting the job done, boys!

Kila said...

A good cleaning is very satisfying, even though it never stays clean for long!

As for the instruction booklets, I like Whitney's idea. I've just been putting them all in a shoebox in the boys' bedroom closet.

Anonymous said...

Throw the books away. Who really builds what they see in the books..come on... Besides, for legos and Knex you can go to the web sites and print them up the manuals if you really need them. They are just more clutter.

Child Life said...

Oh, I like Operation Mean Mom :D I think we need one around here! Go Kristi!