Update Attempt #2

First off: Happy 2010!

So, now updates with the Moore Boys:

We are currently experiencing the phenomena that occurs when you have one child that is still a bit on the baby side of things and unable to communicate as well as the older child and also tends to destroy delicate creations by the older child, and then you have the older child that, aside from being SUCH a bossy older child, collects Legos and builds fancy, delicate creations....and freaks out if the baby child comes anywhere near these creations...and also the older child still see's the younger child as a baby and gets annoyed that the younger child cannot communicate as well as he, the older child, can.

Does this make any sense? Does it sound familiar?? I guess an easier way to summarize our situation is to say Keats & Sully fight a LOT about Legos, in particular, and they have a very, very, very difficult time sharing. Anything. Really. This all started with Keats--he yells at Sully for even coming near his Legos or really any other toy or item in this house--and now Sully does the same thing to Keats. It is a vicious cycle.

I am tired of telling them to find a way to get along...so I decided to make them deal with it: I put Sullivan back into Keaton's room and now they have to share everything and that.is.that. I realize that it isn't going to miraculously cure everything and that the early stages will be pure chaos but I am hoping in the end they'll learn how to get along...and take that lesson into life.

They are actually doing pretty well with the transition. Keats is on top bunk, Sully is on bottom bunk. They share a dresser and each have a half of the closet to themselves. But all toys are up for grabs, with the exception of their "baby" creatures that are their lifelines and their new Leapster2 games: they can share game cartridges but cannot share the actual Leapster2. Keaton's is Star Wars and Sully's is the regular green theme...this way they have something that is all their own but they still have to share the games.

I'll let you know how my experiment pans out. Lol.

Wtih the boys sharing a room, we now have one spare room. I want to paint Sully's room and turn it into Mike's office. Mike has always used a closet other than the one in our room (too small....and it is a walk-in!) and so his stuff is always thrown around. His work phoneline originates in Sully's room; he's always charged the handset there at night and then taken it into his office during the day. So, by giving Mike this room as an office, he can have everything of his all in one place. And the room is bigger. I have promised Mike that I will paint the room for him and give him a cinema/movie theme. Hopefully will make a pretty neato Dude Room-slash-office.

Then the old playroom/new office will become, again, the playroom. But...the boys will have to split it with me! I am going to take one side & one of the little rooms as my craft area. I cannot do ANYTHING in regards to crafts right now as I have no room of my own, so to speak. This room will be perfect in both regards (play area and craft area) as we had those shelves built a few years ago and this would be a perfect place for me to store unfinished crafts, and on the other side of the room we can store board games, which are a frequent activity around here now.

I have a lot of painting and planning to do before I can get either project rolling but hopefully within a couple of months everything will be in place.