This wasn't about my toys. The Giant Baby kept getting more and more of his toys out, without packing any up. Then when it was time to pack up, he'd freak out because there was just so much! I wouldn't even have minded if it was all in his room. But he'd make a mess in his room, then drag toys out to the dancing room, then when that got messy he'd move into the dining room, the loungeroom, then his sister's room. On top of which, not only would he refuse to pack up, if we tried to pack up at any point, he'd melt down because "I was just about to start playing with that!"
I got rid of some of his toys (stuff he didn't play with anyway), some got moved to the communal toy area in the loungeroom, and a lot of them got divided into boxes and are being stored in my wardrobe. He has to ask for the toys he wants and if he wants another box, he has to pack up the one that's already out. As I did this, it seemed really mean, but it's working really well. He seems like he's under less pressure and he's actually playing with a wider variety of his toys more often. But I do think this is the first sign of the apocalypse!
Then I made a deal with the Giant Husband. I wouldn't bring home any more new dolls unless I already had proper plans for them for a while.
This wasn't him being mean or bossy but because I freaked out a tiny bit over the sheer number of dolls I have that I vaguely plan on doing "something" with. The deal we made was no new dolls until Christmas. Hopefully this will give me a chance to prioritise the ones I have put away. Maybe even get rid of some? Ugh! I'm pretty sure me agreeing to this and actually considering it, is another sign of the apocalypse!
And then I got back $300 I had leant someone. It was money I had never expected to see again, so I had no plans for it. The Giant Husband said that I could spend it on dolls if I wanted. I thought about it for over a week. I considered a million different things. $300 would go a long way to saving up for another Iplehouse doll. Or it would buy quite a lot of other dolls. So what did I buy?
Bookshelves. To replace our old ones that were wobbly and rickety to a dangerous extent. I'm concerned that I may be turning into a proper grown up! I'm even more worried that while a little voice in my head keeps saying "You could have gotten . . .", I don't actually regret it, or even mind. It probably helps that they look so much better than the old shelves did. But I'm fairly certain this is yet another sign of the apocalypse.
I've also finally started watching the anime (Oreimo) that these girls (I call them Tristessa and Butterscotch but their real names are Kuroneko and Kirino Kousaka) are from. By the way if anyone likes anime there's a website called AnimeLab run by a company (Madman) that sell anime DVDs. You can watch heaps of anime for free and they have a massive selection. I've never watched the show before but I love these characters because they look like characters I would have made up. (I'm pretty sure Xanadu has a Figma of Ayase Aragaki from the same show.)
I was a bit apprehensive going into the show. Everything I read online said the show was about Kirino trying to hide her interest in anime and falling in love with her brother. Ummm . . . Ok. A bit icky. But I finished the first season last night and there hasn't been much that I'd consider incestuous. Actually if I hadn't read that before watching, I would probably have assumed it was a story of teenage siblings reconnecting and I would have assumed Kirino was a lesbian.
The part I'm having trouble with, which is making me abandon the show for days at a time, is that Kirino's main interest isn't anime. But little sister eroges. What's that? An eroge is a type of video game where the purpose is to seduce someone, maybe make them fall in love with you. An erotic video game. And the ones Kirino is into? Involve seducing the player character's little sister. Eroges were generally mentioned in the reviews I read. The bit where they're child porn eroges was not. And while nothing is shown, I'm still not really ok with that. Or I'm really not ok with that.
I still like the dolls. I even like the characters in the show (although Kirino is an ultra moody, batshit crazy, bratty kid). And I am going to finish watching it, but it's a tough slog.
Hopefully I'll be able to post more on Donatina in a day or two. At the moment she's on hold because the kids are sick again and being a lot of fun.
No culture is perfect, but Japanese culture is messed up in unique and special ways sometimes.
ReplyDeleteYour toy idea sounds great. I wish we had thought of something like it when our kids were little.
Sometimes we have to be practical, although as soon as I saw that row of bookcases, I thought how you could display dolls on it. XD Seriously, though, my husband probably has more "toys" than I do, if you count all his tabletop gaming stuff as toys. The man has about 1000 dice, I think more.
Don't forget that you do have some new-to-you dolls headed your way. ;)
Japan is definitely . . . special.
DeleteA friend suggested what we've done with the toys, years ago. But we never had enough storage space in our old house to do it.
A thousand dice!? I think I need to hear more about that!
The dolls finally cleared customs last night! They've been there for days! Hopefully they won't sit in a mail centre for days as well!
My package from Xanadu has been sitting in customs for almost a week! :(
DeleteI'll see what I can do about the dice.
Well look who's getting all sensible. LOL! I think that's a great idea with the toys, and the best thing is if he doesn't ask for certain toys you can pass them on to someone else. :)
ReplyDeleteAre those Billy Bookcases Rachael? I love them, they are so inexpensive and fabulously versatile, but I'm with Barb, they'd make wonderful dolly shelves.
I like Anime stuff and love Japanese street fashion, but rarely watch any Anime shows. I'm sure if I did, I'd try not to read too much into it and just enjoy the art.
Whatever you do, sensible or otherwise, just have fun!
Big hugs,
X
Lol I'm keeping track of what he plays with, for that exact reason.
DeleteThey are Billys! Ever since I got some for my doll room, I've wanted some in the loungeroom. The ones we had before were knock offs from the reject shop from about 20 years ago and they were not in a good way. But I'm trying to keep dolls out of the lounge for now. . . (As they breed, I'll probably change my mind)
It's not only the dolls that breed you know, you have to watch those Billy's too. I added a couple of the shorter ones to my laundry to use as an extra pantry, one caters for laundry and household cleaning stuff as well as the dog food. The other is for tinned and bottled goods. The lower pantry in the kitchen is used for kitchen paraphernalia and top part I can't reach without a stool and I always fall off them! :)
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