and just like that.....it happened

my boys have slept together for 6 years now.  from the moment my youngest was born he slept with me.  our oldest hated being left out of the bed so he joined us too.  about 2 1/2 years later i was nite weaning my youngest and decided i needed my bed back b/c it was getting quite crowded so i put the boys in bed together.  that worked out nicely. 

but in the back of mind i wondered what would happen when the oldest wanted to sleep alone.  he is 4 years older and i figured it would happen eventually.....and i worried about how the youngest would handle it.

then one labor day weekend they decided they wanted to actually sleep in separate beds and they did!  they still shared a room and that was good enough.  well somehow they ended up in the same bed again....but lately the oldest was starting to complain about the bed being too crowded....and we were trying to convince my youngest to move back into his own bed.

then i started to wonder what would happen when the oldest wanted his own room! he is 10 now so its likely to happen soon....and again i worried about how the youngest would handle it.

well - last nite out of the blue - the youngest decided he wanted his own room!!! so we spent last nite rearranging furniture, bringing over posters and stuffed animals and both boys slept in their own beds - in their own rooms!!!

so many times in my parenting life i've struggled with wanting to desperately trust my instincts while fighting with what my mind (and others) told me i should do.  it takes a lot of courage for a parent to put their full faith in a child and to trust in the process of human growth and development.  so often we are told that our children must act a certain way or reach a certain milestone at whatever particular age and if they don't then there is a problem.  i've seen many parents struggle with feeling the need to make their child conform to the "expected" standard and the unhappiness and frustration both parties feel.  i'll admit i really wondered if i was doing the right thing by letting the boys share a bed for so long.  it wasn't b/c of it being weird (and you can guess that many people do think it is weird) - but b/c i was really worried about how youngest would feel about being kicked out if he wasn't ready!  i was also afraid of poo-pooing my oldest's desire to have his own space in my attempt to cushion the blow to my youngest.  but when i would get worried about it i would take a deep breathe and just believe that it will all work out when the time is right.  and i'm so glad it did.

last nite was beautiful really.  while i was reading to my youngest - the oldest came bouncing in and out of the room - obviously very nervous about actually being alone for the first time and when the time came to turn out the lights - my oldest reached over and gave his younger brother a big bear hug. 

as with any sibling relationship there is fighting and picking on each other - and lately it feels like that is all the boys do to each other......but after last nite - i am convinced - that no matter what they are truly devoted to each other and that they will always be there for each other. 

through the eyes of a yak's kid.......

by now my family is used to me photographing everything. they don't even bat an eye when i stand on a chair to get a downward shot or lay my camera on the ground to for an upward perspective.  niether my husband nor my oldest has any interest in taking pictures.  my youngest, however likes to grab the camera and shoot.  lately though, i've noticed that his shots seem to mirror mine.  i'll catch him lying on the ground and shooting up or getting real close and focusing on something tiny.  these are some recent shots he took one snowy day while being cooped up in the house.  he appears to be his favorite subject.  i don't blame him.

a taste of spring

we've had weather in the upper 50s this weekend and its been wonderful! the boys have been desperate to play on some playground equipment (their school one is still too snowy) and my husband and i have been desperate to get the bikes out. so yesterday we had the opportunity to do both.

we had to forgo our usual gravel trail and find a paved one instead. it was nice because it gave my youngest more practice with his 2 wheeler - but parts of the path were too snowy to pass so we ended up doing the same loop over and over.

it felt good to stretch our legs and move our bodies.  after a couple of hours it was time to leave.  we were hungry and the park was getting crowded - filled with people of all ages desperate to get outside too.
except for some expected rain - the rest of this week is supposed to be just as nice.  it feels so good to feel spring.

today's the day!

my husband comes home! 

the boys can't wait to see him. i can't wait to get my bed back!  its been nice sleeping with the boys this week but my youngest - who sleeps next to me - is a huge cuddle bug.  he spent his first year of life sleeping ON my belly and now - even though he is too big for that - he sleeps right up against me...leaving me barely room to move......but that's ok - soon enough he won't want to sleep with me at all and that is worse than a bad nite's sleep!

now off to clean the house so hubby doesn't wonder what i did all week..........

my friend cindy's revelation

ok - i just finished reading my friend's blog post and love it so much i want to share it with you.

take a second to go over and read it here..........

a post with no pictures.............or what would i grab in a fire

my youngest dropped my laptop and i can't get it to load windows.  i could just ship it off to get fixed but i'm having a really hard time paying the $49 especially since all i need to do is a complete system restore - which is easy enough.  where i am having problems is backing up my pictures onto a memory stick - its not working - and techy i am definitely NOT..........not to bore you anymore but i hope to get it sorted soon......

so what does this have to do with a fire?  well - nothing really...but it sorta does.  i think many people have thought about what they would grab in the case of a fire.  i've thought about it - and never really came up with a solid answer - probably b/c my mind just wouldn't go there - envisioning a fire in my home.  why do i want to put that thought out there in the universe! right?? 

even though i like taking pics (and since starting my blog i REALLY like taking pictures) i do nothing with them.  before digital - i would get the photos developed and stick them in frames.  since digital - they sit in my laptop.  we even bought a printer so i could print them out and still i didn't.  it wasn't until very recently that i i just recently started making photobooks....and i even did test out the printer and filled some frames.  but on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 having photobooks and framed pics all over the house - i am about a 2. 

so back to my laptop.  being online only once a day for Lent has really loosened the hold of "computer time suck" on me...so the fact that my laptop doesn't work doesn't really bother me. (ok - it helps that i have a computer at work and another one at home to use - but forget that for a minute.)  in the past if there was something wrong with my computer i would spend hours with a tech trying to fix it.  i did spend some time with one this time around too - but when it got to the point where i had to do a system restore - i couldn't do it.

i can lose everything else - music, docs, favorites.............but i just can't lose these pictures.

and the kicker is there really aren't that many on there!  but the ones that are there i really really want to keep!  my son's boy scout events, pics of both boys playing basketball, birthday parties............

sigh

i am trying to make peace with the fact that i may in fact have to lose them if i can't figure out how to back them  up onto another computer......but i am pretty bummed about it.

but as any good lesson is learned AFTER the fact - you can believe i'll be backing pics up regularly and definitely onto snapfish........and check my smoke detectors too....

philly - through the eyes of a tourist

since i'm dealing with a missing camera and broken laptop - i've decided to write a post i had wanted to do last summer.  i live in the burbs outside philly and have gone into the city for a variety of reasons over the years....theatre, dinner, special events, airport pick-ups or drop offs.......but its not unless we have out of town guests do i visit as a tourist. 

philadelphia is a beautiful city rich with history and full of beautiful little side streets and old buildings.  i remember as a child the standard 3rd grade class trip was to see the liberty bell.......that doesn't appear to be the case anymore.  so last summer i found myself in the city with the boys and decided to pretend i was a tourist and view the sites as an outsider.  we tried to hit as many tourist sites as possible...as well as some off the beaten path spots.

there is a wonderful free program called Once Upon a Nation.  it is a walking tour of the key locations in historic philly.  there are storytelling benches set up throughout the area where you sit and listen to a story about some not so well known events in history.    kids can pick up a flag at any bench and receive stars for each story they hear.  the boys really enjoyed looking for each bench and listening to the different types of stories. 

then there were times we didn't even have a specific destination in mind.  we just walked towards the direction we needed to head into and if a particular street caught our attention - we headed down it....just looking at the architecture of the buildings and the cobblestone streets......

at one point we stopped to play in an urban playground.  we have playgrounds a plenty in our neighborhood where grass is not hard to find...the boys didn't really like to be playing on old, broken cement....but they did like the water towers.  i remember them asking if it was ok for them to actually let themselves get wet!  it was all so foreign to them - being a city kid trying to just be a kid and have fun.

we met up with a friend who took us to see the magic gardens  which is an amazing place to be.  if you ever get the chance to be in center city i would highly recommend going to visit there.  i've posted pics of some of his other mosiacs in this post.   it is the perfect place for kids to run around and just play hide and seek or simply get lost.........

like any city - while there is miles of cement - you can still find some green

and catch a performance or two

i'd highly recommend taking the time to visit your neighborhood as a tourist if you ever get the chance.  so often we take our family and friends and even our surroundings for granted.  just as its important to reconnect with our family and friends - its just as important and fulfilling to reconnect with where we live.  there is a reason why we live there - sometimes we need to be reminded of that reason and appreciate all it has to offer.