Room to breathe

I have to say that I have had a great week. In many ways it felt like a 'staycation'. My parents graciously offered to take Peter and Emma for the week. While the older two were away writing books for this year's PBS Kids writing contest, I had room to breathe. I didn't really know that I needed room to breathe until it was given to me. When strangers or friends comment to me about 4 kids being a lot of work my token response is, "If you can handle two you can handle 4". Though I still believe that, I was pleasantly reminded that there is a huge difference between 2 and 4 kids. We all had room to breathe. Ryan had room to be the big man on campus. He had room to climb to new heights and shoulder the responsibility of being a big brother. We had tea parties, baked cookies, went the the park, made it to story time and read lots of books.
Although, there was some sibling conflictthere just didn't seem to be quite as much! I am looking forward to returning to a family of 6. I hope to find a way to keep the peace, fun and room to breathe that we found this week.