Bed Sharing

When I started my parenting journey, I was adamantly opposed to kids sharing bedrooms.  That changed rather quickly as it become obvious that our children were going to outnumber our bedrooms.  And bedroom-sharing is still pretty common, so people generally don't look at you like you're crazy.  But we've ventured into brand-new territory this year - bed-sharing.  Elle's crib canopy broke in January so we knew it was time to take it down and move her into a big girl bed.  We'd planned, originally, on buying a small twin bed to add to the room, but looking at Cecily in her huge full bed (we have full size bunk beds - Allegra's on the top bunk), it just seemed silly to cram another bed in there and take away the generous floor space they have to play dolls and Build-A-Bears.  So, Cecily and Elinor bed-share.  I don't know how long it will last, but it's pretty darn cute right now.  They have very particular sides of the bed and there's an invisible but clear dividing that the other girl's blankets and toys must not cross.  I hope this works out well for a few years, because they are just so sweet!

 

I had to include this picture because it makes me smile.  In Sunday School one day Cecily made a puppet (paper on a popsicle stick) of David and decided that she LOVED him.  She took care of him for several days, and this particular night she wanted him to sleep by her, so she tipped over her hamper, but him on the bed that goes in her dollhouse, layed him under the blanket and put her shoe on top of the blanket to make sure he didn't fall out.  It's little things like these that I want to remember a decade from now...

Irish Twins

I occasionally think God knew that having six children was going to be difficult for me, so he purposely blessed me with my little (almost) Irish twins.  It's not that they, as individual children, are any more special than any of my other children (yes, I love them all equally, and I'm not just saying that because I'm "supposed" to), but there's something special about how close in age they are and watching that bond develop as they get older is really fun.  It's especially interesting because they typify our two "stains" of children that we seem to consistently produce.  The delicate, fine-boned (although, let me tell you, looks can be deceiving) brown-haired version, and the sturdy, bubbly blond-haired version.  They wear the same size clothes for the first time ever, and I'm stressing about how I'm going to manage that this summer.  But mostly it's just a great joy and pleasure to look back in the car and see them side by side in their identical carseats, or snuggled up together in the full-size bed they share, or to listen to their hilarious conversations.  I would have never chosen this on my own, but somehow God does manage to give you exactly what you need, doesn't He?