Big changes for the little ones

Tuesday I moved Kailin's bed into Colby's room. (That is now to say that I moved her in there on a Tuesday.... since I started this post on 9/25 and here it is 10/7 and I'm finally finishing it up!)

We hadn't been sleeping well since he'd been up 5-6 times a night since last Friday. Virus. I hate that diagnosis. Not that I want something clinically wrong with my child, but clearly something was wrong with him anyway and at least there's hope of a medication or treatment to alleviate the constant agony (for me - ha ha). Constant whining and fussing and sleeplessness is more like it and this time I do mean Colby (well, and me after a few days!). Anyway, virus is not music to any mom's ears because it simply means that you have to wait it out. I'm not particularly big on medicating my kids for every little illness, but I'd have done it to be rid of that one. Anyway...


We've been wanting to move the kids in together since it became apparent that we'd be staying in this house. We have several motives. First, both Steve and I shared a room with siblings as young kids and we agree that it's good for kids to do. Secondly, the original plan was to put Kailin in the room Colby's in before he came home and give him the smaller room because a. he's smaller b. he, as a boy, would be less likely to care in the long run about the size of his room (please do not send me 900 emails about being gender biased - I'm basing this on the fact that when I brought up that we'd need a reason to give Kailin later on about why her room is smaller (since we'd decided NOT to move her across the hall when we put the house on the market to avoid having her move rooms, get a new brother and move houses - pick your order) Steve said "she won't ever care...") so this way if someone "moves out" of their shared room, we can move Colby to the smaller room without having to make them swap entirely. Lastly, IF we have a third child, the sex of that child will determine which kids share the larger room permanently and which one gets the smaller room to themselves. (throw in that we can then use Kailin's old room as a play room and get some of the toys out of our living room and it was hard to find reasons not to make this the plan!)

Anyway, I was spoiled on the first day and they napped beautifully. It was all a ploy to let me do the happy dance and then SNATCH IT AWAY the very next day by jumping in their beds and hooting and hollering and carrying on like banshees for two full hours without ever sleeping. I'm happy to say that we've got the entertainment portion of nap down to just about 10-15 mins most days and that they're pretty regularly going right to sleep at night.

The best part is that I've seen them become so much closer since they've shared a room. They seem more aware of/concerned about each other's whereabouts and welfare and they play together much more often than they were. It could all be happenstance, but I don't think so.

Now our next move is to start buying pieces of the bedroom set we want for them. It's a campout theme with little pup tents that will attach to their beds. We are making plans to paint their room with a backyard theme and glow in the dark fireflies on the walls so that they can have their little backyard campout every night. Idyllic yes, unrealistic - probably, but I can't wait, anyway!