Old Is New Again

This is cool. A mixture of the old and new. The arrival of the new and enormous bunk bed was the perfect excuse for us to go through Kiernan's toys and get rid of a bunch of things he has lost interest in or outgrown. For the most part we kept him in the loop on this, letting him make some decisions about things that he might like to keep, and things he could let go. We did not do this with everything, of course, as the task would have taken until he was a teenager. But rather than sneak everything out under cover of darkness it seemed a good opportunity for him to learn that there is a time to get rid of stuff. There's plenty of ways I would like him to follow in my footsteps...being a pack rat is not one of them.

One of his choices was about his first set of blocks. This set of blocks was a gift from Nee-Nee, and it is a really cool set. We used to play with them a lot a couple of years ago, but they have been neglected for awhile. In point of fact, just about everything has been neglected since the Planet Heroes came on the scene. Guinea Pig and his books are about the only things still in regular rotation.

Given a choice between getting rid of the blocks, however, and letting a similar toy go, Kiernan chose to keep the blocks. I thought this was a pretty cool choice, made cooler by the fact that we have been playing with the blocks a lot the last couple of days. Even greater is how this represents a new stage in his development: a greater interest in building something than knocking it down. Playing with the blocks used to be like building sand castles at the beach. I would stack up some kind of structure and he would barrel through and knock it down. Over and over again. But now he says, "Let's build a castle, Dad!" Then we set to work building something together.

As we built one of the first castles he suddenly realized that this would be the perfect place for his Planet Heroes to hang out. So he got them one by one and made room for them. I like this a lot, because it brings together one of his oldest toys with his newest. I'm happy such coexistence is possible.


[Picture Note: In the pictures you basically see the homemade version of a Planet Hero accessory toy called the Solar Headquarters. The Solar Headquarters is a giant space station where the Planet Heroes amass to learn of upcoming missions and have their book club meetings. I'm glad he is going for this homemade wooden version right now, as it means I can put off having another garish plastic monstrosity in my home.]