My kids are growing up

This is it.

My boys are packing up the Playmobil in the basement playroom.

Sure, we’ve had prior rounds of sorting through toys before, to get rid of the most babyish items, but this is the real deal. They’re demoting the playmobil upstairs to the attic, to await the hands of grandchildren.  Also various toy cars, trucks, fire engines, and all manner of other toys, and the play food and play kitchen and play workbench will either meet their fate there or in a bag of donations to the thrift store, and I’m not sure what’s going to happen to the stuffed animal bin.  And the combine!  And the barn, which was itself bought at a thrift store when the new version was turned into an electronic “learning toy” monstrosity.  It came without the animals, and we ended up with a batch of animals bought separately, but the kids tended to put the Wild Animal set (elephant, giraffe, etc.) in the barn instead.  And the Red and Blue Wiggle, which will likely end up at the thrift store, and even then, I’m not sure — do kids still watch and listen to the Wiggles?  Wikipedia says that with the exception of Anthony the Blue Wiggle, it’s an entirely new group.

About all that’s staying is Lego and board games.

Of course, the Legos still do get played with quite a bit, by my youngest, anyway.  Here’s his latest creation, copied after the Stone Army in Ninjago, as represented by the Stone Army minifigure.

And what’s going to replace the toys?  The Playstation video game console.

We’ve also discussed packing up the picture books that still sit on the shelves in the living room; sure, again, here, we’ve had rounds of weeding out, but there’s still Forklifts, that we read over and over, and then he was happy to see actual forklifts at Aldi, and Country Crossing, as well as Henry and Mudge books, and Babar books, and countless books about trains and construction machinery.

So, in principle, I think it’s great that my kids are growing up.  I know full well that I’ll have new worries, like college admission, then college success, then success after college, but at the same time — well, is it crazy that I’m already planning on a River Cruise after the kids have left home and looking forward to travelling off-season?

And yet, my youngest, my 9 year old, is definitely still my little boy.  I still tuck him in most nights, and he still says, “Good night, I love you, have a good day in the morning, and have a good night,” his ritual for years now.  He hangs out with me when the older boys are on their Scout outings, and I encourage him to develop his drawing skills (though it’s admittedly been a while since we sat down to draw together), and he’s now in the “intermediate” Monart class (just started last week, so I can’t show you a picture he’s completed yet other than the step-by-step drawings of the Basic class).  And on the way to lunch today, he and my 13 year old debated the merits of the two protagonists of the Fablehaven series, the latest in the children’s series books that he’s consuming, after Harry Potter and the Rick Riordan sets — which he currently takes with him whenever there might be some downtime, even if it’s a car ride.

But my middle son, in 8th grade, is starting to worry about high school, and my oldest, a junior — well, he just got his first piece of mail from a college yesterday.

And me?  No hot flashes yet, but that could start at any time.