What is under my son's bed?

I know… It has been some time since I blogged.

I have been working on doing NOTHING.

We leave on Monday. Only 3 days away.

We have our luggage, our car is clean, and our hotels are mostly booked (I still haven’t figured out Philadelphia). I think everything is done.

…except the house. Except Ian’s room.

I bought the storage containers a few weeks ago, but they have sat in the foyer.

I couldn’t leave him undone before the trip. If I did, I don’t think I would ever do it.

So I started yesterday, while Isabel was in school. I let her know that I would be working on it and whether she wanted anything. She declined.

I began in the closet. Half was adult clothing left by a roommate. I removed those first. Then I began sorting through the shoes. The shoes. The shoes. I feel bad about a lot of things, but after seeing how many damn shoes that kid had, I must not have been neglecting him!

I worked through the bottom of the closet. Uncovering rumpled up shirts, crumpled candy wrappers (hidden from Mommy in the closet!), and more shoes.

I then began going through the armoire of toys. Matching different toy sets with one another. I must have picked up over a hundred light bright pegs. Chris and I agreed to throw that out. Ian used it for a night light for a little while, but never played with it. We NEVER want to be stabbed in the foot by those things again!

I chose to keep most of his toys.

Do I think I will every use them again? Maybe for another child? Probably not.

Isabel will have to throw out these boxes when we die. I don’t think I can throw out his things or donate them. It is too much loss.

We argued half-heartedly about the stuffed animals. Which ones were sentimental, which ones crap? We kept them all.

I waited on the bed, but then summoned my Xena Warrior strength and lifted it up and out.

That was the worst part. I knew it would be.

Did you know that the junk under your bed is the most personal? The discarded underwear, food wrappers, Q-tips…

Ian was a “chewer.” He liked to chew on random objects (except for the 5-10 gummy vitamins he discarded down the side of his bed. Caught you Ian!). I continued to go through piece by piece. Shards of wood, plastic, cardboard. Random things from around the house. A marble. I threw them all out. Except.

The dirty clothes!!! I know I shouldn’t be so attached to a filthy sock, but I raised it immediately to my nose and inhaled. I don’t know if that is Ian’s smell anymore… I can’t remember.

Regardless, I gathered up the socks, underwear, one mitten, and one shirt and shoved them into a freezer bag to preserve the smell… I might need it later.

On the bright side, I made a turkey for no reason today:

And won trivia with my husband and father for the third week in the row. Notice the addition to the trophy we made on the bottom!