I thought it might be interesting to do a quick little post about the toys that the kids brought with them since I don’t think we have really talked about that yet. (Side note: this turned out not to be so little…. Ahh well.)
At home in the states my kids had so, so, so many toys. As we prepared to pack up our lives and move here to Morocco we knew we would have to cut things back. But what to bring? I’m not going to lie, it was hard to make those choices. I think it was actually harder on David and I than the kids, as we sorted things and cherished memories of our kids playing with and loving on and playing with them. It was hard to not bring everything, even though a lot of the stuff they had outgrown or just lost interest in. I will say that weight played a role in our decisions as well, since everything was going into our luggage.
So things that came with us:
Not pictured; kitchen things, dress up things, stuffed animals, and various other random small things. The kitchen stuff sees surprisingly little use (surprising because it was very popular in Seattle), but I think that’s because we don’t have a kitchen to put it in. Maybe we will get the kids one for Christmas? The dress up thing has faded in and out with Patrick, but Eloise wears her “princess dresses” daily. Originally we were going to try and cut almost all of the stuffed animals, but somehow a lot of them ended up coming and I’m glad they did. The kids sleep with them all every night and David has a really sweet bedtime routine built around them. (Seriously it melts my heart even when I’m tired, and done for the day, and over the whole bedtime thing.)
Things we didn’t bring; wooden block, trains and train tracks, doll houses and dolls for them, lots of random favorite toys, dominos, a set of small wooden house blocks, small shape blocks, puzzles and I’m sure a few other random things. The blocks and trains are HEAVY, and most of the other stuff got cut as we tried to trim back what we were taking. I think if I had to pick one of those things it would likely be a selection of train tracks and trains, but they were kinda fading in popularity even before we left so who knows if it would have been worth it. I think the small house blocks are probably the one we should have brought along with doll houses and dolls.
Many things could just be purchased here, and while part of me wants to load the kids up with all the favorite toys they are missing, part of me also knows that less is probably more. If we had those things would they really get played with? Who knows?!?!? I guess it’s kinda an unknown.
When I was struggling with packing a friend told me not to over pack on the toys that the new environment and the new adventures would be more important and ultimately what they would remember most. It’s great advice and I try and keep it in mind whenever I feel guilty about the things that we didn’t bring. Thanks Sue!
