Stickers Rule!

Today I learnt that my 2 boys can actually concentrate. I did always wonder whether I would ever witness it from the boys. Their concentration stemmed from stickers. If I'd known how much stickers would improve our lives I would have bought them for Brandon from the day he was born. Stickers are the 1 thing that Brandon and Bailey get lost in thought and play with. Sure we all end up with stickers stuck in the most ridiculous of places- under feet, on bottoms, Bailey likes to stick them on his doodle (!!!), and in the kids beds. They are covering half of Brandon's bedroom door and then nearly all of one wall in his bedroom. They do feel like they occasionally take over the house, but if it means the 2 boys sit and concentrate then so be it.

This morning we de-cluttered the kids toy box. Hooray! This is something that I have been trying to do for so long. Eventually I have got through to the boys that we could give all the toys that they don't play with anymore to kids that might really enjoy them but not be able afford them. We have bags and bags of stuff to give away. Funnily enough a lot of the toys are soft toys. The boys never really got into soft toys. Of course there is the exception, and a few slip through that have sentimental ties. We have someone coming around tomorrow to pick up all the stuff. By the end of de-cluttering the boy's toy box, I actually had Brandon eagerly looking for more and more toys to give away to other kids. I was so very proud of him.

We didn't venture out today until 11am which for us is pretty late. Just thought we had to spice it up a bit. Actually it took us so unbelievably long to get organised. The boys kept finding things to do, books to read, mess to make, food to throw, and things to be destroyed. Once we finally got out we went off to a shopping centre that we don't usually go to. One of my clients had mentioned that they had bought 6 metres of Christmas wrapping paper there for $1.00. Sold. I bought 6 rolls and even now I'm not positive that's enough. The boys had a ride on a mechanical ride. It was called "Rescue-air, sea, land" Brandon thought the title was very important so he just had to have a ride with Bailey.

From there we travelled to a fruit and veggie shop to get some essentials- watermelon, strawberries, chocolate biscuits and grapes. By now it was very hot so once back in the car we turned up the air conditioner and cruised home. No-one slept. Once everyone was fed and Brandon had stuck about 200 stickers all over himself, his bed, his wall and his brother, the boys sat and watched some TV. That lasted about 2 minutes, just long enough for me to make a phone call to organise someone to put the trampoline together. I have enough sense to know when something is out of the realm of possibility. I know my strenghts and weaknesses. I also have the memory of having to put 2 kids bikes together 2 weeks ago. The memory is still fresh in my mind.

Daddy ran in the door and I went to work. By now the 2 boys were very tired so apparently they just stuck stickers everywhere. It only took about 10 minutes before both boys were snoring. Hopefully there is some stickers left for tomorrow so they can concentrate again while I attempt to make phone calls or clean up the destruction left behind after breakfast.