End of an Era

It's the end of an era here in the new house.

Chicklet9 and Bantam-nearly-7 are no longer sharing a room.  They've been together since his birth.

B12 and B16 are no longer sharing a room, either--and they've been roomies for 8 years.

B16 is now in C9's and B6's old room--in his own room for the first time in his life. He's not exactly alone--he's got guitars and amps and speakers and guitar cases and other equipment.

C9 now has her own room--Blondechick19's old room--the one with its own bathroom, walk-in closet and waterbed. Ooooohhh. 

B-nearly-7 moved into the big bedroom, into B16's old spot with B-nearly-13. They're going to have a Lego empire covering the carpet in there, at least for awhile.  (Sadly, B12 is making his first noises about not being as "in" to Legos anymore.)

Blondechick will stay in our guest room when she comes home from college now.  Even though she's living in the dorm for 8 months out of the year now, I was all for keeping things as they were until she had spent her first summer home in her old bedroom.  I was going to break it to her gently, about July?--but then over Christmas break, she was talking about decorating and covering the walls with tape and sticky-tack, and I had to nix her ideas with the suggestion that it might be a lot of work to get it all off the walls, in the near future.

At first it was a horrible shock to her, and she accused me of kicking her out of the house when she had barely started college.  But when she settled down and thought about it, she realized the advantages of the basement guest room.  It's perfectly quiet down there, with no younger siblings making noise in the hall in the mornings, when she wants to sleep in.  She'd have her own bathroom there too, and the big family TV would be right outside her door, as well as our workout equipment (which she's really getting into at college).  Suddenly, she was all for it, and wanted to switch rooms as soon as possible!

She'll still keep her off-season clothes in her old closet upstairs, because the guest room closet is tiny.  But she'll have a dresser and under-bed storage boxes, and the closet in the bathroom, and when we have guests, she'll move back in with her sister for a night or two.  In her old room, Blondechick was sleeping on a mattress on the floor anyway, since the waterbed was giving her back pain.  On the few occasions that we have guests while she is home, she'll roll out her familiar mattress and they'll have a sister sleepover!  (I think the waterbed's days are numbered--besides potentially causing back pain, it takes up a lot of room, you can't move it or store anything under it, and you have to pay to heat the dang thing.)

Everything is in disarray and we still have the closets to tear apart and switch around, but it is all very exciting and kind of emotional.

B16 is over the moon.  He's the one who was really pushing for this move.  He has all his equipment lined up impressively along one wall, and his iPod dock and speakers positioned for surround sound.  He can't wait to get the closets done and put his band pictures and posters up, and have everything just the way he wants it.

B6 has had a big smile on his face ever since we moved his mattress into B12's room.  He's been playing on the expanse of carpet in his new room, flying Beanie Babies around as if they were action figures, crashing and shooting and yelling at each other.

B12 is not as excited; he's disgruntled that nothing is changing for him, really  He doesn't mind sharing with B6 for now, but I know it may get harder for him in another year or two--it's a bigger gap than there was between him and B16.

B21 alone remains untouched, in his corner castle.  He will share a wall with B16's stereo, though, which will probably require some adjustment and negotiation.

Chicklet is happy and overwhelmed with where to put all her stuff.  She had lots of storage under the bed in her old room, so we'll have to figure out some new storage solutions. I told Chicklet that I was 9 years old when I got my own room, too, and I remember how excited I was.

It's different for Chicklet because it still feels like Blondechick's room, in many ways, and she's just moving in with an absent sister.  It made us miss Blondechick.

As we stood in her new room, surrounded by all her disorganized stuff, Chicklet wrapped her arms around my waist and smiled up into my eyes for several long minutes.  Then she asked, "Mom, are you so glad that you had two daughters, so that when one left for college, you still had one at home with you?"

I held back tears as I assured her that I was, indeed, so glad and so grateful to God for a second daughter. I told her that as hard as it had been on Blondechick to have to wait ten years for a baby sister, maybe God knew that it would certainly be better for me, if my girls weren't too close together!

And so, time keeps marching on, doggone it.  In another week, my baby will be 7, and my fourth-born will be joining the teenager ranks.

No, I wouldn't want to turn back the clock or anything, but I do wish that my heart would do a better job of keeping up. It always hangs out toward the rear of the procession, and gets further and further behind, and then awkwardly has to run to catch up.

That's me, today.  Wondering where the time has gone, and why I feel so out of step. The new beat sounds catchy though; I'll probably enjoy it, once I catch up!