No One Likes to Sleep Alone.

This past week Georgia finally figured out how to climb in and out of her crib with great speed and efficiency. This has changed the dynamic of our home in many ways. For one, it completely neutralized my greatest tactic in coping with her tantrums. In the past when she started flailing and thrashing on the floor in retaliation against one of my parental requests, I would initiate the count-down to her bed. By "three... twoooooo..." she had usually sniffed back her tears and regained her composer. Well, once the crib could no longer hold her, that little tool has had to be modified. It is a work in progress.

The other big change has happened with our bedtime routines. It used to be that once it was lights out, Georgia could be counted on to remain where we last saw her until morning. Once her crib-scaling skills were perfectly honed, we could expect to hear the little pitter-pater of bare Georgia toes up the stairs several times with requests for a drink or to use the toilet. She was clearly ready for a big-girl bed even if we weren't quite ready for her to be there yet.

So, this past weekend Smoochy brought up from the basement a full mattress and box springs we recently inherited. Our intention was that Georgia would move into Norm's old toddler bed and he'd advance to the full. As Smoochy was disassembling Georgia's crib you could sense her panic beginning to develop. When he started bringing the pieces of it up to our room (for Lola to EVENTUALLY use) Georgia cried out, "MY bed!!! Where is my bed going!?" She was reassured that she was getting a new bed and that seemed to at least perk her interest if not totally ease her tension.

Later that evening after the kids had their baths we were all in their room putting on their PJs and talking about the new sleeping arrangements. It quickly became clear that both kids had designs on the big bed. Why not? There is certainly enough room for both. So, to avert a full scale toddler war it was proposed and readily accepted that the new bed was for BOTH children.

I can't tell you that this hasn't added a new dimension to bedtime. Though everything else has remained constant from dinner-time to bath-time right up until I read their books and tuck them in, the kids are staying up until it gets dark talking, laughing, and looking at their books. Last night Smoochy and I were relaxing in the living room reading on our respective electronic devices while the kids carried on rambunctiously. Smoochy went down there several times to gently urge them to settle down and go to sleep. The whole scene made me laugh because it was the quintessential parent/child conflict. We have arrived as parents.

At last they quieted down and conked out. When Smoochy went down to check on them before we hit the hay ourselves, he came back up and told me I had to see for myself how cute they were. This is how I found them:

Oh my little darlings!

After snapping these pictures I pulled out the sheet wound around Normy in order to cover both kids... only to discover he had wet the bed and they were sleeping in a huge puddle of his pee. Nice. Parenting rocks.