Shared Space

On a complete whim, Rhett and I decided to move Charlotte out of her room and into Cate's room yesterday.  This meant ditching the crib and setting up a "big girl" bed for Charlotte.  This will be great, we said.  So easy! we said.  Charlotte takes change like a champ, we said.  Ha.

We'd originally planted the seed of moving Charlotte last year, when we thought we'd have a baby this spring or summer--a baby that would force Charlotte out of the crib whether she liked it or not.  Rhett and I eventually dropped the subject but Cate did not--she really, really wanted Charlotte in her room.  Charlotte, who is content to go along with most things Cate dictates, echoed the desire.

We got our old guest room mattress out of the storage in our garage and whisked Charlotte off to Target to pick out new sheets and a comforter.  In a very strange turn of events she picked a purple chevron design for her sheets and an all-purple quilt (ed. note: not actually strange at all--Rhett called her picks before she even made them).  Rhett rejiggered all the furniture, I moved clothes and prrrrrrresto!  We had a new, shared room complete with two beds, a play table, and a book nook.

So much purple!

Our book nook

 Charlotte was totally thrilled.  Until, that is, bedtime rolled around.  I put them to bed early because neither girl wanted to nap that day and it took me an hour and twenty minutes to get them to sleep.  This included:

• Five requests for tissues
• Two requests for water
• Thirty minutes of Charlotte straight up jumping on her bed and laughing
• Another thirty minutes of Charlotte running into my room
• Lots of giggling (not me)
• Lots of seething (me)
• Some rapid fire googling by Mama 
• Twenty minutes of trying to be like "Super Nanny"

It was all fun and games at bedtime…until I said "goodnight" for the first of 200 times

Charlotte finally gave up at 8:20pm.  I was spent by the end and I am sure it will happen again tonight.  But it's like all transitions, right?  Don't we all think "It will always be terrible!" and then, a week later, we say "that wasn't so bad."  Right now though, I really feel like taking a nap!  Guess who doesn't feel that way though…her name starts with a "C" and ends with a "harlotte."  Ahhhhhh...