Playing musical bedrooms

Elvis moved in with me a few weeks back. He was refusing to sleep and just being generally uncooperative with Alli. So, I took him. He does fine with me. He knows I won't put up with his nonsense. Anyway, he's been sleeping in my bed with me.

We didn't start out like that. I was one of those people who didn't believe that kids should have to sleep with someone. He came home from NICU and started sleeping in a co-sleeper in my room. He did that for the first year and then the ear infections started. We couldn't clear them up. They would start to get better and then get a lot worse. He spent so much time screaming during that 2nd year of his life that he started sleeping with someone. Once he moved from my bedroom into Alli's, he never slept alone again. Now, at age 5, that's all he has known.

Last week, I decided to stake my claim and take my bed back. We moved his toddler bed into my room and put it beside my bed. He's done quite well with it. He still goes to sleep in my bed but then I move him to his bed. He woke about 3:00 AM the first night and came back to my bed. The next night, he stayed in his bed until 5:00 AM. Ever since, he's stayed asleep in his bed until time to get up in the morning (8:30 AM or later). He's doing very well! I'm so excited. Once he's established the ability to sleep through the night, I'll work on getting him to actually fall asleep in his own bed, but, for now, I feel good about his (our) progress.

And, isn't his bed just the cutest thing? (Look closely and you can see my booger-green bedroom walls in the background.)

In other developments, Beth decided that she wanted to move into the room Cori recently vacated. I have no idea why. It's smaller than her room and is close to the den. I can see no benefit of moving into that room but she wanted to so I let her. She packed up the rest of Cori's stuff and has it neatly stacked, waiting to be transported to her. She cleaned out the rest of the room AND painted it Monday before moving in Monday night.

Beth is not known for her painting skills. That has always been a joke in our family. The girls' bio parents were painters when the kids lived with them. Alli paints quite well but Beth seemed to lack that gene. When she's attempted to paint walls before, they were covered in drips and missed patches. However, I have to admit she did a good job with her new room. It's not the colors I'd have chosen but she just used paint we had left over from other projects so it didn't cost a thing. And, it turned out kind of cute. The walls were the yellow color, still visible at the top. The blue is left over from Alli and Boy Wonder's new bathroom. (I know, wild color, but Alli picked it.) The purple is left over from the hall bathroom. So, Beth has a cute, new room for absolutely no cost. You have got to love projects like that!