Monday, December 14, 2009

Roomies

Well, it's official...

Mom-E and I are nesting.

As a part of that behavior, we are trying to have evicted Little Brother from his room, so that Bab-E can have his crib (and room). CAN YOU TELL THAT SOMEBODY'S ALREADY A MIDDLE CHILD, AND DOESN'T EVEN KNOW IT? (AT LEAST HE'S A HAPPY GUY.)

(No, don't worry, we didn't move him to Big Brother's "old residence".)

Big Brother was almost 3 when Little Brother was born. We were able to get Big Brother out of the crib and into a new room (converted guest room) with a toddler bed pretty easily, based on the lure of a "new, big boy room with a big boy bed." (Keeping him IN the toddler bed was another story altogether.)

Fortunately, even though Little Brother is recently-turned 2, he has been pretty receptive to the idea of boarding with Big Brother (temporarily, for about 3 months, until they get their own rooms in the new house.)

And Big Brother, that sweet and patient guy when he's not being an utter terror, was actually pretty excited about the idea of having a roomie. (They really do play together pretty well.)

Of course, we sweetened the deal by upgrading Big Brother to a twin bed (with new Transformer bedding for Christmas from Gramm-E and Grampap-E). Thanks to CY-Aunt-E (aka "Beast") for hauling the bed back to us.

And Little Brother is excited, albeit in an approach-avoidance kinda way, about his "new" toddler big boy bed. (He too, will score new Thomas bedding for Christmas, again courtesy of Gramm-E and Grampap-E.)

The first night, the boys were so excited about their new bed arrangements that they claimed they wanted to turn-in around 6pm.

That idea didn't last long. About 30 seconds later, Little Brother stood up in his bed to announce, "I still awake!"

Big Brother did exclaim, "I have a great, great, big, big bed! Can I have it forever?"

(I opted not to have the discussion that unless he marries Donna Reed, at some point he may be asked to upgrade to a little larger bed.)

Still, we knew this was going to be a hard transition for Little Brother. There's a strange security for a 2 year-old in a caged cell crib.

So far, we're batting .500. Little Brother took a nap in his new bed on Saturday (and it only took 2 hours, and rocking him to sleep in my arms, to get him to "fall asleep" in the new bed). We also had major success on Sunday night (this time only about 90 minutes, but he fell asleep on his own and I got a short nap out of the deal while hanging out in their room.)

Of course, Big Brother fell asleep long before Little Brother, who perked his head up to ask, "What's Big Brother doing?"

"He's sleeping buddy. You know, what YOU should be doing right about now."

And so, here's to a new era in our household. Those two boys already are are going to be thick as thieves, and this opportunity will no doubt contribute to that bond.

Lord, please help us.

Have a good week,
Busy-Dad-E

4 comments:

  1. My 4YO daughter and 2YO son share a room. We recently bought bunk beds. She had a twin bed prior and he was in a toddler bed for about 6 months. He had to be forced out of his crib due to his little sister needing it.

    They both LOVE their bunk bed. But my son can stay up and play for about 2 hours some times.

    But we stagger the bed times. Sometimes we put my daughter in our room to fall asleep then move her to her bed. Just so they both go to sleep and not play for hours.

    But even that isn't 100%

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  2. Transition is always hard! You'll probably have to tear them apart when you move to the new house! love, aunt-e

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  3. Why is it that Dads always fall asleep while putting the kids to bed?

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  4. Good luck. I hope you don't spend the entire 3 months working on it just to move and start over.

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