Part Two: It Was Great While It Lasted

About 15 minutes after I made my post last night, Henry was standing at the gate to their bedroom screaming, “I NEED A NAP!  I NEED A NAP!!” 

Poor kid. 

They finally settled down around 11 o’clock last night.  I got up around 12:30 to nurse Penelope, and went in to check on them afterwards.  When I checked on them, Piper and Rosemary were asleep on the floor, and Henry was in Piper’s crib with every pillow, blanket, and stuffed animal in the room.  Piper had a blue doggie, but Rosemary did not.  When Gary checked on them later on, Piper and Rosemary were head-to-head sharing the blue doggie.

Gary and I decided that it is time to move on to toddler beds.  A few months ago we probably would have gone the crib tent route, but we both now feel that we are ready for the next step.  So, tonight on the way home from work Gary stopped by the storage building and picked up the toddler bed conversion rails.  He put them on the beds while I did dinner with the kids, then everyone went upstairs to see their new beds.

Inspired by Cathy’s new use of her iPhone camera and some photography apps, I took these photos of the kids checking out their “new” beds" (using the Hipstamatic app):

And then we left them alone again.  And the partying commenced.

My (current) theory is that we don’t change the kids’ routine and they adapt to their newfound freedom by reason of necessity.  Gary woke the kids up at their normal wake time this morning, and it was no surprise that they didn’t really want to get up.  But they did.  Miss Sally told me that they were all asking to go “night night” this morning.  But they mostly stuck to their regular schedule, which means that Miss Sally woke them up from their naps at about the time they normally wake up. 

Tonight went marginally better than last night.  About an hour ago I went up there and poor Henry was asking to go “night night” so I put him back in his bed and covered him up.  The girls are definitely keeping him up.  I keep going back and forth in thinking that he needs his own room, versus thinking that he wants to be with his sisters.  After that, I was learning toward Henry needing his own room. 

Right now it’s mostly quiet up there, which means that they settled down a little more than an hour earlier than last night.  I think that if we just keep them on their regular schedule that eventually they will be tired enough to just go to bed at night.  We’ll see.   And of course (hopefully), at some point, the novelty will wear off.  I think we’re going to give it a few nights and see what happens, then reassess if necessary.