Ms. Busy Bee

Avery has found a new favorite thing to do. She LOVVVVES to unload and load anything. A dishwasher, playpen, bucket, basket, anything at all! She started this habit, I suppose, thanks to me. I am a bit of a clean freak, well a 'straighten freak' I guess you could say. I always like the house freshly 'straightened' and find it hard to really relax if everything is not 'in its place'. After we bought Avery her big, bouncy 'playpen' we quickly discovered she was not that 'into it'. Soon this became the place where all the toys got dumped. Every day I take out some of her toys but every few hours I would throw them back into the playpen. Avery has watched me do it so many times, she thinks she must do it herself now. The problem is, she doesn't understand that this is the place for toys only. So if we're missing a phone, camera, remote, cell phone, calculator, pen, debit card, bill, Gladware container, sippy cup or anything else she can get her hands on - we know where to look! I decided to catch her in action and get some photos since this task occupies so much of her time at our house! Here is what I saw:

Step 1: If someone is trying to get you to smile for pictures, while you are working, frown at them...do NOT let them break your concentration.

Step 2 - Gather remotes, DVDs, Cell Phones, Toys and any other possible item to move them to your ball pit.

Step 3 - Go very quickly, you don't have all day, ya know!

Step 4 - Run if necessary.

Step 5 - There will sometimes be items so large they are hard to get in the playpen. But you must keep trying and eventually you'll figure it out. Never let mommy help you and if she does immediately throw a fit.

Step 6 - After you have found all possible toys, find other things of importance - DVD remotes, cell phones, empty water bottles and fingernail files. Throw them in ONLY when mommy isn't watching!

So...after all steps were completed by Avery, I decided it was very much time to clean it out. The ball pit was almost full at this point! Just look at the mess!

So after organizing for hours, I put only the balls back into the ball pit. I threw away the junk, bagged up the 'baby' toys and separated the rest into baskets, placing them around the house. And what happened next? Avery found the neatly placed baskets throughout the house with different toys and immediately returned them to where they belong!!