This is what Sanjay leaves behind when he's been "playing" in a room for more than 5 minutes. Picture this scene... trains and wooden tracks strewn all over the floor with an occasional matchbox car thrown in for good measure; Priya in a clear spot on the carpet trying to play with her horses. In Sanjay's world for some reason boats fly... really, he holds them up in the air and they glide gently as if they had wings as he meanders around the house. I can only guess that he's tired of walking around with the plastic boat and this is why he is now throwing it instead. He tosses it, nearly hitting Priya, so she asks him to stop. Using his selective hearing, he chooses not to listen and proceeds to throw it again until it crashes into the fireplace. Now it's Mommy's turn to try to stop the flying boats. This seems to work and his attention is diverted to a very pretty beaded bracelet... the stretchy kind. Testing its elasticity he stretches it... farther... a little more... POP!!!... beads go flying everywhere. Small ones... lots of them. I only know this happened because I hear a few of them make their way into the kitchen hitting the refrigerator and rolling to a stop on the floor. Hours earlier, he was playing solo-volleyball with Priya's valentine heart balloon when it burst leaving her in tears, especially because she begged me not to let him play with it for this exact reason.
Now it's almost time for dinner and Sanjay makes his way onto a bar stool... I can hear Priya, "Stop Sanjay... the crayons are here". Once again, he decides to do his own thing and scoots back on the chair forcing the crayon box to the floor. Mind you, this crayon box is only days old. Together they work on 64-crayon-pickup... Priya knows I'm angry so she's working hard with Sanjay to get his help, and I hear this in a very do-what-i-say-and-no-one-will-get-hurt serious tone, "Sanj, give them to me (slight pause) quietly and quickly. Give them to me like you know them". I'm not sure what that last part meant, but whatever she said, however she looked at him, it broke through his thick skin of defiance and he listened and they got the job done. I even managed to repair the broken crayon box. Looks like today at least, the trail of destruction is one broken toy shorter.
