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Pickup Party
By Cheryl Simon
Aug 22, 2012 - 8:10:00 AM
Hiding place.
When my children were little, my mom, a.k.a. “Gramma Goo,” would always have a way to get them to pick up their toys when it was that time. She would say, in a singsong voice, “Let’s have a pick-up party!” She would start to pick up and the kids would join in, and picking up toys was fun with Gramma Goo leading the pack.
That worked almost every time until they got older. They got wise to what she was doing and the magic of her “Pied Piper“ spell eventually wore off. By that time, toys were more high-tech, and they weren’t as prone to be left lying all over the floor as they were to be absconded by a sibling and whisked off to his or her room to secretly use it. Then the arguing would commence and so on and so forth.
This morning, while picking up after Toby and Winnie, I thought about my mom and my children and how she was able to manipulate them into cleaning up after themselves — and wondered if there was some sort of magical charm that would work on my dogs to get them to pick up their toys and put them back in the toy basket. Outside of learning the ways of a dog whisperer and using some sort of telepathy on them, I highly doubt anything I would try would have a very high success rate.
The Toy Basket.
I’ve mentioned before that under the couch is Winnie’s secret stash area. Anything Toby might have is soon the property of Winnie and hidden deep under the couch. Lately I’ve needed to get something to reach to the back wall to get the treasures out from under. Like a child learns through repetition, she is learning that putting her toys to the front of the couch will get them taken away much faster than if she hides them all the way to the back corner. I had a dilly of a time retrieving my outside shoes yesterday.
With the wonderful weather, laundry is meant to be washed and hung on the lines. Bedding is the best when it’s fresh off the line. Of course before I could strip the beds, I had to collect all the toys and belongings that Toby and Winnie had buried under the comforter. I probably should have just carried them to the toy basket and deposited them there, but I was in a hurry and a bit lazy, and so I just tossed them through the door and into the hall.
Quick as a wink, Winnie was on it. One old shoe grabbed up and dragged to her hiding spot. Then she was back for the toys that Toby likes to bring to bed. Now they are all under the couch as well. Hindsight is foresight. Now I’ll have to get on my tummy and gather
"I got it first; it's mine".
everything under the couch again and put it away in the basket.
I need my mom here to sing, “Let’s have a pick up party!” It might make kicking myself in the butt a bit less painful.
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