Decorating Daze

We've been doing a lot of decorating around here.  First, there was the long-awaited arrival of the bunk beds, which prompted a room switch, lots of furniture rearranging, and some purging.  Then there is this bizarre way I get come fall every year.  Most people are prompted to clean and clean out and organize in say April...not me - we do "fall cleaning" around these parts.  Perhaps it's the looming promise of lots and lots of new stuff descending upon our already way too crowded house in oh, 26 or so days.  Perhaps it's the shorter days and wanting to pretty the space in which we'll be trapped for the next six months.  For whatever reason, I get a big time urge to purge every November.  And then, of course, on top of all that is the annual decking of our halls.  Lugging those giant bins, stuffed with snowmen and reindeer glasses and advent calendars and Christmas CDs out from the garage every Thanksgiving Sunday (or Monday or Tuesday) is probably one of my most favorite traditions.  I love poring over all my old treasures, and new ones received last Christmas and therefore forgotten.  And most of all, I love watching my boys' delight as they rediscover the excitement of the Christmas season.

All this reshuffling and reorganizing and redecorating has illuminated, once again, how very different my boys are.  On the one hand, you have Ethan.  Organizing, displaying artwork, bringing out (every) holiday's decorations, rearranging furniture...these would each make Ethan's top ten list of chosen activities for a rainy afternoon (or any afternoon, really).  He is pensive and thoughtful about exactly where things should go and how they should go there and who should put them there (always Ethan).  And I wish, oh how I wish, I could say he was skilled beyond his years in the art of decorating...but he's not.  He decorates like, well, like a five year old.  Which is all well and good except that he decorates like a five year old who thinks he is the latest designer to have a hit on HGTV (you see, his mama is similarly design-dumb and can't even call to mind the name of a famous interior designer to use in this metaphor).  Anyway, Ethan is stubborn as all getup when it comes to decorating and it is really quite maddening to try to talk him out of ideas like hanging hand-made mobiles from ceiling fans and amassing every single holiday candle we own on our kitchen table.

And then there is Adam.  Adam could not care less about how things look.  I spent much of our stay-at-home day yesterday trying to set up the boys' new playroom (taking advantage of a certain design nazi being conveniently at school) and Adam just played happily beside me.  I tried to engage him in my efforts, asking where I should hang this picture, which toys we should put here...the picture question highlighted the large hammer he'd overlooked and the toys just got pulled out and played with rather than organized.  When I had finished and asked Adam what he thought, he jumped up and down with glee and said "It looks so cool Mom!".  So he likes the result but is perfectly happy to stay out of the process.  During Sunday's snowman explosion, he got really bored with opening box after box of Christmas decorations and settled (literally) into one, paging through holiday stories and snuggling with reindeer and Christmas bears.  It's a relief to have one child who is so mellow about these sorts of activities - I'm not sure there is room in this house for two Ethans.  That being said, after unsuccessfully trying to convince Adam to help me decorate our wreaths yesterday, I was beyond tickled when Ethan bounded off the bus this afternoon and said, "Mommy, let's go do our wreaths and make them the best in the neighborhood!".  I couldn't think of a better way to spend our Ethan/Mommy time this afternoon, even if our lamp post does have an awkward red knot around it and the wreath on our front door is dripping with gold chains.  The problem is, our little design czar notices everything...so as tempted as I am to go tweak that wreath, or let that red knot mysteriously blow away, or put up all my Christmas decorations in the middle of the night, I'll hold back.  For one, I fear the wrath of Ethan scorned, but I also recognize that letting go of some of this control is probably good for my soul.  And spending time with my kids, in whatever way they want to "participate" in the task at hand - that, I know is good for my soul.

And some totally unrelated photos to share (I'll post pics of the new bedroom and playroom once it's all done)...

Despite their very different personalities, both my boys are superheroes.

And my favorite hiking buddies.