Four kids, a mountain of toys and a mere 1200 square feet
... which makes for one fun week!
We knew my sister and her family would be visiting us this week and we knew the consequences would be toys everywhere, occasional toddler warfare and a bevy of sippy cups and snacks. But last week when we had the environmental safety guy come out to check out some mold growing in a never-used closet we didn't know about the consequences of his visit.
He had initially told my DH over the phone that most household mold is simply a matter of spraying with bleach and isn't a genuine health hazard. He also said that the term "toxic black mold" was created by personal injury lawyers and isn't medically substantiated. He was by no means an alarmist, having fun striking fear in the hearts of every mold-growing homeowner.
Then his consequence-creating visit came. He took one look in the closet (which is located off of our sunroom/toy room) and noted that this was not your standard clean-up-with-bleach situation. Instead he offered the enticing alternative of ripping out the room down to the studs and starting over. And he recommended keeping everyone out of the sunroom/toy room. Erck. This with the pending arrival of 2 additional toddler-types and 3 additional adults.
So we moved out all of the toys, washed them down (each and every little part) and moving some into the garage for future use and some into our living room. Oh the joys. I was anticipated a challenging few days with too many kids and toys in too little room. Although we knew our sunroom wasn't well-constructed (that's putting it quite mildly) it has been such a useful room since it harbors all our toys and keeps them from being underfoot. The thought of having 400 square feet off limits was a bit daunting.
But then my brother and my sister and her family came, and... it was fine. Great, in fact. The kids did wonderfully and had a great time playing together. It's been so fun to see them growing up and turning into such sweet little people. Although her current location is much preferred to her previous one, I'd give anything for my sister to be closer than she is now. But since that's unlikely to happen, I have to say it is so fun to see the dramatic changes in kids that a few months can bring. There really wasn't any toddler warfare (aside from the occasional toy ownership issues) and, honestly, no tears (aside from those caused by parents). It was the kind of thing I'd always wished for growing up myself, just 3 1/2 solid days of playing until you're too tired to do anything but... get more wound up.
So, thank you, prrrof, for coming down to see us! We loved it!
We knew my sister and her family would be visiting us this week and we knew the consequences would be toys everywhere, occasional toddler warfare and a bevy of sippy cups and snacks. But last week when we had the environmental safety guy come out to check out some mold growing in a never-used closet we didn't know about the consequences of his visit.
He had initially told my DH over the phone that most household mold is simply a matter of spraying with bleach and isn't a genuine health hazard. He also said that the term "toxic black mold" was created by personal injury lawyers and isn't medically substantiated. He was by no means an alarmist, having fun striking fear in the hearts of every mold-growing homeowner.
Then his consequence-creating visit came. He took one look in the closet (which is located off of our sunroom/toy room) and noted that this was not your standard clean-up-with-bleach situation. Instead he offered the enticing alternative of ripping out the room down to the studs and starting over. And he recommended keeping everyone out of the sunroom/toy room. Erck. This with the pending arrival of 2 additional toddler-types and 3 additional adults.
So we moved out all of the toys, washed them down (each and every little part) and moving some into the garage for future use and some into our living room. Oh the joys. I was anticipated a challenging few days with too many kids and toys in too little room. Although we knew our sunroom wasn't well-constructed (that's putting it quite mildly) it has been such a useful room since it harbors all our toys and keeps them from being underfoot. The thought of having 400 square feet off limits was a bit daunting.
But then my brother and my sister and her family came, and... it was fine. Great, in fact. The kids did wonderfully and had a great time playing together. It's been so fun to see them growing up and turning into such sweet little people. Although her current location is much preferred to her previous one, I'd give anything for my sister to be closer than she is now. But since that's unlikely to happen, I have to say it is so fun to see the dramatic changes in kids that a few months can bring. There really wasn't any toddler warfare (aside from the occasional toy ownership issues) and, honestly, no tears (aside from those caused by parents). It was the kind of thing I'd always wished for growing up myself, just 3 1/2 solid days of playing until you're too tired to do anything but... get more wound up.
So, thank you, prrrof, for coming down to see us! We loved it!
posted by Left Coast Sister at 4:33 PM
2 Comments:
Are you kidding? We loved it! We were well-fed and the kids did do great. It's such a hoot to watch our kids play together -- I just love that they have cousins they'll know and (hopefully continue to) like. My next blog post was going to be about cousin-dom and what a meaningful kind of relationship that was for my DH--and something we didn't have a lot of, but that we can encourage in our kids.
Plus, LCS is *great* about getting out of the house and doing things, so that got me motivated and got us having even more fun!
Aaaaaaw! Sounds perfectly . . . perfect!
Carrie
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