My oldest daughter is living at college these days. Last week was her first full week at Digipen Institute of Technology, her second living in student housing. She’s only in Redmond, but it’s still her first experience living away from home, even if she can be home in a mere 45 minutes.

She’s living in student housing because Digipen’s programs are extremely intense. At the open house last spring, the president gave a speech and told us to say goodbye to our student for the duration of the semester. With the college open until midnight and the last shuttle leaving at 12:10 am, we’re expecting late nights finishing homework.

Every evening I’ve been texting her to see how her day has gone, to find out if she likes her classes, teachers, schedule. I have to say I am concerned about how she’ll handle it and making it through the first week intact and happy will set a good course for the rest of the semester.

So when I asked her on Thursday how the homework was going, she replied “It’s been good. I’ve had a little from every class so far. I feel like we’re practicing for when they start piling it on.”

I was happy she hadn’t let her guard down so early in the game and that she was gearing up for a lot more, because it showed me she was prepared to hunker down and get to work.

It reminded me of when she was a baby and began to be interested in playing with toys. She wasn’t even walking yet, maybe not even crawling, but I’d haul out all her toys to spark her interest: stacking rings, rattles, balls and other colorful, baby-friendly toys.

Then every evening, I’d put them all away in a box and think, “Psht! What is so hard about keeping kids toys picked up anyway?” Oh, I gloated in my head and wondered why other parent’s houses were tornado ruins when I cleaned up so easily and efficiently. I must be all kinds of awesome mother.

Then she started walking and she needed toys that would match her growing mind and body. “Need” is a relative word here. We all know that children play with whatever they want to play with: pots and pans, spoons, dust bunnies. We get them the toys we want. We relive of our childhoods, wishing those great toys were available when we were kids. Even now I see new toys I wish I had children to buy for. That’s really why people want to be grandparents; so they can buy toys again.

I’m not sure why we buy them toys anyway; they just want to play with the cardboard box the toys come in. Maybe parents should just buy their kids boxes so they can put the toys other people give them in the boxes.

Anyway, soon my house was a jungle of small, chunky, plastic and wood pieces strategically laid out for sleepy parents to step on in the middle of the night. It was far beyond me to clean it all up at the end of every evening because the toys were everywhere and my energy was gone; the stacking rings having been flung hither and yon, never to be heard from again.

I thought back to those days when I wondered what was so hard about keeping kids toys picked up and realized I hadn’t seen anything yet. And neither has my daughter who is steeling herself for the barrage of homework coming her way.

I may not have been prepared for the magnitude of childhood toys, but at least my daughter is ready for the world to bring it on!

Gretchen Leigh is a stay-at-home mom who lives in Covington. She is finally on top of all the toys. You can also read more of her writing and her daily blog on her website livingwithgleigh.com or on Facebook at “Living with Gleigh.” Her column is available every week at maplevalleyreporter.com under the Lifestyles section.