Part of my household purge has been getting rid of furniture and toys the children no longer use. I sold Haddie’s Fisher Price princess trunk and bookshelf on Craiglist and hope to save up some money to buy her a more grown-up desk and hutch for her birthday.
Grandparents, take note. 
One item I was sad to part with was our Thomas the Trainset. We have a long history with Thomas. When Hadley was 2 years old, she drew blood at Toys R Us over her refusal to leave Thomas behind. It got so bad that she had to be personally escorted out of the store by the manager. Jamie wrote about it on the blog he created to counter my “lies”: Crazy Canuck: The Truth Set Free.
That’s another phase I’m glad has come and gone.
Though I can’t say his pumpkin blog, Denver Pumpkins, is much better.
(On a related note, be sure to “like” him on his newly-created Facebook page The Pumpkin Man for updates on the pumpkin’s growth and the air date of a certain network show we’ll be on.)
But back to Thomas. We ended up buying the current train track off of Craiglist and surprised her with it for Christmas. One of my fondest memories was watching her chubby little legs race over to it for the first time. Both she and Bode spent hours playing with dear Thomas until he went into early retirement last year.
I posted the train track on Craiglist and we sold it on Monday. After the sale, with the fondness of a mother far-removed from the trauma, I told Hadley about when she made her blood pact with Thomas at Toys R Us. I don’t know what I expected: Horror or embarrassment about her reaction, perhaps? But certainly not this:
“Well, didn’t you buy it for me?”
How far she has come.
I'm a Canadian-born mom of two, former Denver Post columnist, family travel writer, editor of MileHighMamas.com and 9News contributor. Expert on all things Utah, Denver, family and travel. Lover of laughter and life. Happily married to a man obsessed with growing The Great Pumpkin. 