Giving

One of the big lessons that Sheryl and I are trying to stress with Kinsey is giving things away. Kinsey was the first grandchild on both sides of the family and so, she has been given a lot of toys. A lot of stuffed animals, that I will freely admit my part in. A lot of toys and various and sundry things. Her room has been at the point where we can make it look clean, but it's really things under the bed and in the toy box and in the closet.

A couple of weeks ago, Sheryl decided it was time to clean up the room and get rid of some stuff. Now, on one hand, it could have been very easy to do all of that while Kinsey was at school and Kinsey would come home and miss some of it, and not miss other stuff, but like I said, we want her to learn what it means to give and that sometimes, giving hurts. So together, Sheryl and Kinsey went through her stuff. This stuff went into three categories:

• Connor hand-me-downs: This includes books, some puzzles, and some dolls (Buzz Lightyear, Woody and Jesse, from the Toy Stories)
• Throw aways: Generally stuff that had been so worn or so played with that we couldn't in good conscience give it away (I tried to avoid thinking of the Velveteen Rabbit as we through away some stuffed animals)
• Give aways: A lot of stuff here and there were some struggles with Kinsey initially. She wanted to keep everything. But when Sheryl talked to her about not playing with things and that someone else would, Kinsey really started to warm up to it. She ended up giving away a lot of things that I thought she'd throw a fit about. She got really sweet about it and last night, in her prayer, she said, "Thank you for helping give away my things. Be with the people who don't have as much as we do and help us find ways to help them." I just pray that this becomes a lifelong discipline for her.

In Connor news, he's almost crawling. He's as the point now where he sits himself up easily and if he sees a toy he wants, he reaches for it and falls in its direction. He's almost got the concept of crawling down, so we'll see how much longer it is before we're running after him. I get the feeling it'll be in the next couple of weeks.