Welcome to your life

We helped one of my brothers move a while back. He left a very nice place (no doubt with drawbacks but they were hidden, especially to children) that he had to himself to move in with a roommate.

The old place stood on its own -- a sort of one-bedroom little house. My sons were quite enamored with it. It was very bachelor pad, but I think they thought of it as a clubhouse.

The new place is also very nice. Just different. And the roommate has art on the wall and nice furniture. It's also up a flight of stairs. In my sons' eyes it is much more grownup and not nearly as fun as the old place.

We carried boxes and clothes and furniture into the new place. We helped put things in storage in the attic.

As my brother, my husband and my sons stopped to take a break. Jack took a look around with the hard, honest eyes of a child... the bedroom is smaller and is piled with the just-moved-in boxes, the roommate had tons of his own stuff piled around and things were clearly going to be different.

"This could be your LIFE," Jack says with a wave of his hand.

"Uh. It is my life," said his uncle.