Precious junk

We had to send the car for grooming and polishing today. To do that, we had to clear the car. I nag the twins about the amount of junk they take in and leave in the car. And when we got them to clear their junk today into what they wanted to keep and what they wanted to dump, I realised how I had little Packrats in back. Packrat is Packrat because he loves hoarding and keeping things. Everything and anything might be useful at some point. Perhaps, it is part of the MacGyver complex. Whatever it is, they sure accrued a lot of junk.

In the "dump" pile were used parking coupons, tea stirrers, cotton buds (unused), drinking cones (unused), broken ice cream sticks, tongue depressors (unused) and dried flowers, sticks of various lengths, leaves and pebbles.

In the "keep" pile, a harmonica, a toy car, some dried out fruit shells that seemed to work as a box to keep little knick knacks, various notebooks with random scribbling and etchings.

No amount coaxing, cajoling and eventually commanding convinced them that dumping the stuff was a good idea. In fact, there was whining, begging and interceding on behalf of the absent Muffin for their stuff to be saved.

It has led me to conclude that kids form an attachment to almost anything; as long as they decide that it is something precious, like a stick that resembled the gnarled hand of a witch, they keep it as if it were imbued with magic powers.

At the same time, I was hit by the revelation that I buy toys for the children, it isn't ever because they need it but because I like the toys. When JEDPacks orders arrive, JED are thrilled not because of the loot within but that they might be allowed to take the box and play with it once I've emptied it out. The boxes I have relinquished have become limousines, alter tables, houses, bedrooms, boats and submarines.

Today, Evan found a new toy; the giant recycle bag. By accident, he caught the wind in his big bag and realised it was a giant wind sock. Then it  became about trying to inflate the bag with the various types fans in the house. The only thing we had to do was to ensure that he did not
1) Pull the bag over his head
2) Get his fingers caught in the fan blade

This kept him happily busy for a good hour and he was so thrilled with himself after, especially when he discovered that if the bag were inflated enough with air and he released it, it would sail across the room rather gracefully.

I really do like how much JED enjoy improvising in their play. They dream up fantastical stories involving the Nile crocodiles and the Gruffalo. Muffin rides along and is the mascot or the enemy, depending on mood and benevolence.

The only problem is that to keep boxes and giant trash bags, it takes up space and no matter how neat it is, it looks messy and cluttered, just as all the junk the kids brought into the car stuffed up the side pockets and compartments in the back and made the back seats look like a nest of sorts. 


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