Really mean.  She’s proposed a toy-buying moratorium.  Initially she said “3 months”, and within two sentences she was saying “until Christmas”.  Why does she hate her boys?  What did they ever do to her?  I mean, besides peeing on her, puking, pooping, crying, forcing her to change every poopy diaper for 3 years straight, calling out for her all night long, never letting her eat a hot meal, crushing a nerve in her leg, preventing her from playing volleyball, and in most every other way destroying her social life.  I mean, really, who could get upset with that?

To be fair, half way through going birthday shopping with Grandpa Loren and Grandma Zaidee, I started to freak out about the sheer volume of toys we have, and had to stop.  Of COURSE we don’t need any more big toys.  But we don’t have Harold the Helicopter yet, and the Mine Shaft and Windmill for their trains, or the new Cars airplanes to transport their cars around in, or HUNGRY HUNGRY HIPPOS which I so very much want to watch Dexter play.  How could she do this to ME!?!?!  I mean, them.  Obviously I meant them.  Seriously, people, stop reading into things so much.

And to top it off, the impetus was Katie’s own purchase – two cars as a reward for being good at the Doctor’s office.  I mean, why could I have been the last one to buy their love before the embargo kicked in?

As to the volume of toys, admittedly it is a bit absurd.  To be fair, around 2/3rds of it is hand-me-downs from other kids or family members (for which we are always grateful, don’t get me wrong, it’s just that it has added up).  And a lot of it they’ve outgrown, but we’ve held on to because we’re not entirely sure what the future holds.  I was assuming that this October or next April we’d be dumping an enormous amount of stuff at the SNOMOM’s sale, and I’ve been trying to loan things out to every family I know with kids younger than ours, but it hasn’t helped much.  Our house isn’t too full – it’s mostly the garage that’s bearing the brunt of it.  Somehow we ended up with 3 different farm play sets, each well loved and that we can’t part with, but nonetheless redundant.  We have far too may cars and trucks, and yet there’re at least 3 more I can name that I want to buy them before the week is out.  We have two play castles and three large robots, a gaggle of puzzles, 6 separate etch-a-sketches, more balls than I can throw before my shoulder gives out, three inflatable pools, enough train track to circle the house (twice), and airport and race track we don’t have space for, a mass of stuffed animals that is overflowing the net in their room their beds and  and still a whole box of “3+ years old toys” that we haven’t looked in yet.  Okay, honestly, it’s absurd.  But the boys don’t have lincoln logs yet!  How can I have sons without lincoln logs?  And what about my HUNGRY HUNGRY HIPPOS??!?!?!?

<sigh>

It honestly isn’t a desire to “spoil” or buy them everything they want.  Okay, that’s what it is with the cars, but that’s not what I spend most of my time buying for them.  It’s about trying to add dimensions to their play, or activities I’d like to do with them.  That’s why I added so much to the train track, and emphasized the Legos for their birthday – things that got them building and had more re-use potential than an action figure or another car.  Still, it’s an insidious trap.  And they’re finally getting to the age where they’re cognizant of what’s new, what’s theirs, and how they get new things, which means it’s probably time to stop spoiling.

Or it will be, right after I guy Hungry Hungry Hippos.

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