Toy rotation

Nikko has been holding The Wiggles Dance Party DVD for two days. Last night he was whining for me to put it on, but I had left it in the Pilot so I vowed to fetch it tomorrow morning after the school bus left us. Denis seemed amazed that Nikko could tell the difference which Wiggles DVD was which. After watching them a few times, he can tell which one is The Big Red Car, Racing to the Rainbow, Yummy Yummy, or Dance Party. He came home from school and I was about to start lunch when I remembered the DVD in the Pilot. Knowing Nikko would go ballistic if I walked out of the house, and not wanting to put on his boots and coat just to go to the garage, I told him to come to the door and wait for me while I ran outside to get the DVD from the Pilot. He was wailing and screaming the whole three minutes I was gone, but in the end I retrieved the DVD and we watched it oh, numerous times today. Maria came for ABA at 1pm. We all walked her downstairs, and she told me about storing toys away for a few months and then rotating them, which was a short topic from yesterday's meeting. I listened and understood what she meant, but interjected that I worried the kids would get bored if they didn't have a lot of choices. She pointed out that there's a lot the kids don't play with every day, and that having so many things out could be overwhelming for Nikko so that he doesn't know how to play appropriately with the toys he does have out. That got me a bit, and I am now mentally figuring out how to store these toys. It's probably not that hard, putting a ton of things in rubbermaids, and I've been doing that sporadically recently because I'm in donation mode anyway. There are currently toys in the utility room that the kids haven't seen in a long time because I planned to donate them, but I'm sure they'd be really interested in them if they saw them. Maria's right, of course, we have so many toys that the clutter and the pickup is daunting. Makes me not want to clean them up, and I must admit that I have lamented on how many toys are out that I have to put away. Well, it was time for Nikko to get to work so I said, "See ya, Nikko, have FUN!" and I ushered the kids up the stairs. Nikko had a better session than the last time, and he cracked a big smile when he saw me at the top of the stairs at the end.

After therapy and after I snacked the kids, we went to the basement to romp around. Nikko didn't play with many of the toys. He opted to hold his DVD and a plastic fish and chill out leaning on the foof chairs. He engaged in some tickle play, and when I started singing one of the Wiggles songs from the DVD he looked at me, smiling, and gave me a punch in the arm. He's been doing that when I do something or sing something that he's familiar with, like it's a big joke. I tell him it's not nice to hit, but I don't always stop him because I like that he is expressing himself. One day Ronin is going to ask why Nikko never gets a Time Out. Hmmmmm. Nikko was exhausted by bedtime again so there were no jailbreaks at 9:30p. Tomorrow I hope to take the kids to visit Mom, just to get us out of the house.