On the lighter side; The joys of family

It was somewhere between midnight and six a.m. when light spilled into our dark room from the hallway. Our two little girls had once again made their almost nightly pilgrimage into our room, long after mommy had already read them a story and they had already fallen asleep in their own beds. At some point, they snuck into our room and climbed into our bed . . . and it wasn't long before Isabella proceeded to alternate putting her feet on my head or into my ribs. You may wonder why anyone would tolerate this for even a minute. I know how American culture generally deals with this situation. Even before our babies are born, we often paint their rooms (some call it the nursery) and follow the trend of putting the baby in it's own room as soon as possible. Many feel that this is healthier for the children as they don't become overly dependent on mom and dad, while also giving parents a little time and privacy together. I guess this is where Jessica and I are more Filipino. We purposely bought a king sized bed years ago because we decided that we love having our kids with us and find that instead of making our kids overly dependent on us, it builds a stronger sense of connection and comfort between us and our kids. Some who read this might be looking back at the days when their own kids were little and would give anything to sneak backwards in time to enjoy snuggling with their little ones who are now grown up and long past those years. We intend to savor every moment of that as long as we can. We are not worried about not having "mommy and daddy time". I think after having five kids, one can see that we somehow manage to carve out our time together.

Our girls are now 7 and 3, and we can already sense their growing independence and know that the days of their sneaking into our room are not far from being over.

It seems like it was just yesterday when we would hear the train of sliding pajama'd feet from down the hall getting louder and louder as our first two sons would shuffle across the wood floors of the hallway, sneak into our room and jump in our bed.

Those days of little jammies and blankies are long gone as our 16 and 13 year old sons are in their own rooms and are quite independent as they stay after school for sports, to join study groups, or go and hang out with their friends from time to time. Yet, they are still comfortable to come in our room and chat with us and plop in our bed to watch a movie together or spend some family time reading a book.

I don't want to leave out our third son Tyler, who although is also growing up fast, still joins his two sisters in sneaking into our bed from time to time.

I bet my mom would give just about anything to spend a little time with her two little boys again if she could somehow go back in time. We're not in a hurry to end these precious times, I don't care what that Dr. Spock guy says, and who is he anyways?