The End Of An Era

When we moved into our house five years ago we were so happy.  With four bedrooms and two and a half baths this was the largest place I had ever lived.  We poured over paint swatches for weeks while we waited for closing day to arrive.   I mentally decorated and re-decorated the rooms a thousand times.  It was very exciting.

With six people and only four bedrooms there were sacrifices to be made.  Not everyone could have their own room.  I willingly sacrificed my chance of having a space all to myself and offered to share a room with The Greatest.  He doesn't always make the bed, or put his dirty laundry in the hamper, but on the other hand he doesn't snore, and he doesn't complain about my fifty million girly things all over the bathroom, so there is that.

Having made the first decision, that left four children and three bedrooms.  The boy got his own room.  A perk of being the only boy.  And Pork Chop got her own room, a perk of being the oldest.  That left the youngest two children to share the final room.  They were given the largest bedroom as a concession to the fact that there were two of them in a room.

And they were very happy.

Sweet Pea was still a baby, so we let Bird pick the color for the walls.  She choose a deep shade of purple.  And for five years they have shared everything in their purple room.  Hours of giggle and whispering long past bedtime.  Tea parties, barbies, my little ponies, countless meals in their kitchen.  They are close as two sisters can be.  Sweet Pea never referrs to Bird as her sister, she calls her "My Friend."

Adding another girl to the family is a bit of a logistical nightmare.  If She-who-has-not-been-named had been a boy, he would have shared a room with his brother.  We would have cleared out a corner for a crib and made some matching camo bedding.  Boom!  Done!  (Although if I dwell too long on the amount of choking hazard legos Meaty has all over his room I might reach a different conclusion.  I might have decided that the only viable option would be to burn the house down and use the insurance money to build a smaller house with seven teeny tiny bedrooms so nobody had to share.  Not even me.)

Adding a baby of the girl variety proved to be a bit more challenging.  As much as Pork Chop insisted she wanted to share her room with the baby, I knew that arrangement wouldn't last for long.  The first time the baby got into her make-up or her jewelry, or her art supplies, or messed up a puzzle she had spent days working on, the charm of having a baby sister would be all over.  No, some arrangement of older girls would have to share.  In the end it was decided that Pork Chop would share with Bird.  Bird is now nine years old and while her abilities to keep her room tidy are still slightly lacking, she is old enough to stay out of teenage Pork Chop's things.  And that is important.

And since they are the two older girls, they get the biggest room.  Being older and responsible has to have some perks right?

So it is the end of an era.  No more sweet baby girls in the purple room.

Pork Chop and Bird are anxious to move into their more grown up tan room.

I wonder what laughter and dreams and late night whisperings will happen now.  Will they grow as close as Bird and Sweet Pea?  Will Sweet Pea and  Bird grow apart?  Will Sweet Pea even sleep in her new smaller room alone until the baby comes?

Life, the only constant is change.