The Bain of My Existence

It's been awhile since I went upstairs to the kids' rooms and overhauled them in the sort of way that only their mother can do. After a grueling day of cleaning, I am taking issue with a couple of things:

1. Airsoft BB's (Have you ever kneeled on one? Think Legos... They are all over our yard, bright green, white, red, like large plastic fertilizer pellets that never melt away. When Gavin ran out of them during his last airsoft war, he decided to just pick up the ones lying on his bedroom floor to recollect. In one pick-up he hauled off quite a pile and that was before he checked under the bed or in the corners. I found those while I was vaccuuming - after he'd said it had already been done!)

2. Perler Beads (Those colorful plastic beads you make designs with and then melt together. I had a whole refrigerator covered with designs made into magnets at one time. Usually the designs get made and then sit around Allie's bedroom waiting to be ironed. I'm constantly setting them aside to get dinner ready or they have to be carefully moved off her bed and onto the dressers so she can sleep at night. While I was vaccuuming her room the other day, I thought I saw something colorful in the heat vent. Amongst bobby pins, a Scooby-Doo Bandaid, pistachio shells, yarn and who knows what else - I didn't inspect further - I found handful after handful and I still didn't get all of them.)

And, of course, these things don't like to be sucked up by the vaccuum hose. I try every time only to end up picking them up by hand. Is this something I'll miss when they grow up? I think NOT!