When sleeping arrangements were simpler. Birthday - Emily in top of frame, Madeleine closest to camera."According to the experts..." most children transition from their crib to their bed between two and three years old. This was a transition I have been absolutely dreading. I love the girls' cribs; they are socially-acceptable cages! I know when I put them in their cribs: they can't get into things in the room, they can't attack each other, they can't hurt themselves, they won't fall on the floor (usually) and even if they choose to have a bit of a party with one another - they will eventually fall asleep. Another bonus is that in the unlikely event I am trying to put one in jammies for nap time and the other is running around like a recently escaped monkey from the zoo - I have a safe place to stash the spare child and consequently lower my blood pressure by about 30 points. However, Madeleine and Emily's third birthday is fast approaching and there have been requests for "Big Girl Beds". So, I put my love of the cribs aside (good-bye dear friends) and the adventure began.
Last weekend mattresses and box springs were purchased (we are waiting on headboards until we finalize the furniture positioning in their room) and set for delivery. Wednesday the girls and I went shopping for sheets and each of them got to buy two sets of their choosing. Interestingly, both chose some with frogs and lilypads; then Emily chose another set with flowers and Madeleine chose a set with hearts. Then we looked in a catalog and picked out dust ruffles and comforter covers; Madeleine chose "fayies" (fairies) for her comforter cover and a purple dust ruffle and Emily chose "beyinas" (ballerinas) for her comforter cover and a yellow dust ruffle.
Emily opening her frog sheets.
Madeleine opening her frog sheets.
Emily's flower sheets.
Madeleine's heart sheets.Friday afternoon I went to assemble the bedrails I had bought at Target. While I'm not overwhelmingly handy I have assembled coffee tables, end tables, kitchen table and chairs, bouncy seats, swings, cribs, an exersaucer or two, doll furniture, children's table, a rather intricate toy kitchen, etc. These bedrails were designed by a demented being and impossible to put together (they were returned to Target this morning). This was not good news two hours before bedtime, so...I had just read in Parents magazine to put a pool noodle under the fitted sheet to create a barrier so a child doesn't roll out of bed. Since it is mid January, we don't have a pool and the lake we like to go to is 3,000 miles away - we don't have a whole lot of extra pool noodles floating around. However, we have lots of towels and extra sheets so a protective ridge was slipped under the fitted sheets, and (knock on wood) has worked so far.
We left the girls' cribs in their room partly to reassure them (read this somewhere) and partly as a threat (i.e. "If you get out of your Big Girl Bed, you can sleep in your "white bed".) Normally, the girls are put to bed between 6:30 and 7 and go to sleep about 30 minutes later. Till goes into their room about 7AM and they sleep until anywhere between 6:15-6:45. The first night (last night) the girls goofed around (this included Emily turning off both night lights and Madeleine going into hysterics) and had to have a few "chats" with parents, they finally dozed off about 8:15 (not too bad). However, when they woke up at 4:50 this morning - we were not thrilled! Today's nap time was a bit of a disaster. The pitter-patter of little feet was heard as Emily and Madeleine raced around the room. When they opened their door - I went in. They had opened the top four drawers of their dresser and there were jammies, socks, tights and underwear (including a pair on each of their heads) all over the room. I threatened, put things away and left. Twenty minutes later I was sitting on the floor of their room to encourage staying in bed. Both girls had the unmitigated gall to repeatedly hop out of bed with me in the room. We were placed in our "white beds" and screaming commenced....Till went in about 10 minutes later, put them back in their Big Girl Beds, and while they were still upset (sobbing) - they at least stayed put and slept for about an hour and a half (about half of their normal nap duration)....this evening there was some play, but less than last night and we have our fingers crossed for tomorrow morning.
Madeleine on left, Emily on right..."getting ready for bed" or rather the soon-to-come chaos. As of this morning the beds no longer touch as the crisis (at 4:50 AM) was that Madeleine was putting her feet on Emily's head...
Emily's new "Big Girl Bed" (M refused to have a similar picture taken - at least at this point.)
Madeleine's on the left and Emily's on the right.On another note Madeleine and Emily would like to wish Uncle Paul Happy Birthday and hope he enjoyed the message we left on voice mail.
We also hope Miss Deena is feeling better.
Thursday there were some snow flurries. However, the snow didn't stick and I was informed that "Pokan has good snow and Wiyiambur has bad snow" - apparently, if it doesn't stick, it isn't good. Today there was a bit more snow and it is sticking. There isn't enough to build a snowman, but we did play with our sand buckets and took our strollers on a snow stroll.
Also, miracle of miracles, we now look forward to shampoos. Oma and Opa sent a calendar with cat pictures for Christmas. I tried to put it up in the family room and it was nearly dismantled. So, I put it in the bathroom and you get a "new kitty" on shampoo night. This coupled with the "shampoo hats" seems to have beat the trauma shampoos caused this fall.
