No Smokeing and No Gunns

My oldest daughter is almost 8 and she's at the age where she likes to escape her sister and sit in her room for hours. She does the funniest thing. She will go into her bedroom and when I peek my head in an hour later her room will be totally rearranged. She will move her bed to the other side of the room – the vanity will have been moved. The kid is a toothpick, she only weighs 56 pounds. I imagine that she closes her bedroom door and turns into the Incredible Hulk.

She often turns her closet into a clubhouse. She will throw her shoes into a pile in the middle of her room (which drives me nuts) and pulls her rug in there. She will tack pictures to the wall in her closet. She has a book light that she rigged to the wall with scotch tape. I often find her just chillin in the closet with the door closed, reading a book or watching something on the Ipad. Acting like that is a totally normal thing to do. “Do you want to come out and have dessert?” “No, you can shut the door.” I feel like a crappy mom shutting my kid in the closet. I know she wants me to, but it just doesn't seem right.

She loves to hang things on the wall. Random things. She always is switching it up too. One day her walls will be covered with Hanna Andersson catalog pages, pictures that she has drawn, pictures of our family. Often, she will tape items from around the house on the wall. A bead that is glittery, a physical fitness patch, a paper clip. Whatever she finds interesting - it gets taped onto the wall. Which means I go through a lot of tape. She's a tape stealer. It is really hard because a big part of me just wants to rip everything off the wall and set it back up to be “perfect” but I am trying not to stifle her creative spirit so I just keep the door shut. It is kind of cute that she gets so excited to show me her “wall creations”. She will be an artist one day.

Her new thing is to create signs that she hangs in the hallway next to her room or on her door. Signs that say “My Room” with an arrow that points to the door, “No Boys Allowed”, “Members Only”. My favorite is this one that has been hanging around for a few weeks:

What I find particularly amusing is that we don't smoke or have guns in the house. Unless you plan on robbing us – in that case we have TONS. If you smoke or are a gun slinger don't even THINK about going in my daughter's room.

I love my little bug. She keeps it interesting!