Easter Solstice

People who visit my house often marvel at the amount of toys. On the porch and in the living room, there are blocks, bricks, Lincoln Logs, puzzles, a play kitchen with dishes and food, baby doll stuff, FP Little People things, dress up clothes, a work bench, and tons of musical instruments and books.

But there are not toys in the kids' room. That's right. There are two toddler beds, a dresser, and a bookcase with books, plus the stuffies in their cribs. But no toys. Why? Well, because we spend most of our day downstairs since it used to be too much to haul them up and down. Because toys in the bedroom might interrupt bedtime--as distractions, as agitators, as weapons, as something to crawl up on.

And tonight I had a real glimpse of what life without the downstairs full of toys would be like. And it would be fine, good even. Tonight the kids played Winter Solstice after bath, decorating their beds with loveys and pajamas and blankets, talking about snow angels, even chiming in for the song (you need to have seen Little Bear to understand, probably):

"The night is long
the snow is deep
Mommy loves the winter
Mama loves the winter . . . "

"And I do too."
"And I do too."

They helped each other decorate, crawling in and out of both beds, DD taking particular care to help DS. And they laughed, so happy that it was Winter Solstice.

And DS then said it would soon be Easter Solstice.

Even though the play was tv-inspired (it's my favorite episode), they adapted it to the materials at hand. And played together. Happily. Making it up as they went along.

It's not that I'm against toys, obviously, but I liked the way they played without them. And I'll certainly keep that in mind the next time we're buying toys (come summer birthdays). Open-ended, sturdy, long-lasting toys (perhaps with fewer pieces and parts). Though, that's a lot of what we have.

But it still might be time to clean up and out the downstairs some . . .