November thanksgiving 26: our messy house

(hurrying to get this in before midnight tolls :-)
Ever since our son was born, whenever children visit, they leave toys strewn all over our the house. Children love our house, because we have so many toys; I used to buy almost every one sighted in the hands of a therapist and then some. For the first several years of our son's life, I would leave these toys where they lay for days. I was so happy to see the them picked up, played with, and carried around. Usually, they stayed primly in place on their shelves. It took effort to get our son to pay attention to toys; he did not pick them up on his own, let alone carry them around the house.

Since our son began walking independently last summer, at the age of seven, our house always has something lying around out of place.* Last night he took the measuring spoons from the counter, took them into the living room, got them separated, and then they ended up on the kitchen floor. The other evening, he checked out the bathroom and my toothbrush and (lidless) lip gloss ended up on his bedroom floor. His eyes fall on something at his eye level; he finds it interesting, carries it around until he finds something even more interesting, and drops it where he stands.

Today, I am Thankful for a messy house, bearing mute testimony to son's increasing attention span, and continuously developing fine and gross motor skills.

*A partial survey of the floor starts with the ring-stacker star, the Wiggles Big Red car, Casper the friendly ghost (stuffed), Greg Wiggle, and a padded baseball bat.