A Boy’s World

Bean got a new bed last week.  We traded his queen sized bed (which he loved and we had to promise would be replaced with something infinitely cooler…) for a bunk bed. He and Gracie absolutely love it.  They climb all over that thing, and I constantly find myself saying to Chris, “Someone’s going to break an arm… Someone’s going to break a leg…”

We are talking about really redoing his room this summer to make it into an actual big kid’s room. But for now, we are leaving the READ sign and the bookshelves he has had since he was two. The bookshelves against the wall are actually really great in the bunk bed because they give him a place to put all his books, instead of keeping a pile of them under his covers at the foot of his bed, like he was doing.

I was in his room this morning, straightening up and nosing around like mom’s do, and I had to stop myself from meddling too much in his things.  I used to think a room that looked like this was messy, but as Bean and Gracie get bigger, I’m starting to realize that it’s not really that messy.  It’s just a playroom.  It’s their little world, really.

(And I love when their worlds collide. For example, this morning, I found Gracie’s tea set on the windowsill of Bean’s room from where they had a tea party in Bean’s room yesterday before baseball practice. Makes my heart smile.)

(Also, I found Gatorade in this tea set about two seconds after I took this picture. Which means they smuggled Gatorade up to Bean’s room for the tea party, and then spilled it on his carpet and didn’t tell me. THIS IS WHY WE CAN’T HAVE NICE THINGS!)

Now, this doesn’t mean that they never have to clean their rooms.  They straighten their bedrooms up every night before bed and we clean them every weekend.  But my definition of “clean your room” has changed and relaxed a bit.  The floor needs to be clear.  Under the beds needs to be empty.  The closet needs to be neat.  The bed needs to be made.  But those little spaces throughout their rooms where they play every day, those can stay lived-in for a while.  That’s what our weekend cleaning does.  It cleans those little spaces so that they can start the week fresh.  But throughout the week, I have really changed my definition of a neat, tidy bedroom.

I used to think I’d never be one of “those mom’s” who let their kids rooms be a complete disaster, and I still don’t think I could let their rooms become a total pigpen.  But I am learning to let them enjoy their living space.  They put posters and papers from school all over their walls, and my first instinct is to yank them down because THAT’S NOT THE PLAN I HAD FOR THIS ROOM, CHILD!  But, when I look around their rooms, with their own artwork that they themselves that put up on display and their coloring sitting all over tables and their little Lego worlds and dollhouse pieces all over their desks and tables, I stop myself from cleaning it all up by reminding myself that they are kids.  And this is their space to just be a kid.

(Also, not sure how Chris’s drill ended up in Bean’s room. Hoping that’s leftover from when Chris put the bunk beds together and that Bean hasn’t started deconstructing furniture in his room on his own. Will look into this matter further.)

This is just one more way that Bean growing up has changed me as a person.  Today, we register Gracie for kindergarten, and I can’t believe it.  But I think even more shocking that Gracie being in school is Bean being in second grade.  When did that happen?!

(Also, the kid will not smile for a picture these days, which means I have 100,000 pictures of this face.  Makes a mother proud.)

It’s getting harder and harder to pin this kid down for a picture these days.  It’s getting harder and harder to pin him down for anything, really.  He is always in motion, always moving, always doing.  Just like his dad.  But in the midst of all that movement, he still comes to find me for snuggles and cuddles and kisses.

I’m soaking up there moments because I can literally feel time ticking.

Babies don’t keep.