Our Home is Changing. Bit by Bit

We've changed things up a bit this past weekend. (A little background here....Ava is almost 3 1/2, and all of our kids LOVE going to bed - whether it be for nap or bedtime - they practically race us upstairs to make it to bed first and once in bed they are there for the night) We have four bedrooms. Dave and I knew that we would have to rearrange things eventually once the baby comes home. We thought about waiting until after the baby is born, but figured since we are all so much into a routine it might be better to make the changes now so we all have time to adjust.

Oh yes,.... and the other deciding factor in making the change was this.... Last Wednesday, we put the kids to bed as usual - 8pm. Ava in her crib. We knew Ava was now able to get in and out of the crib, but haven't witnessed it first hand. Dave and I were watching TV downstairs in the dark, because Andrew sleeps down here too. We could hear thumps and noises from upstairs - nothing crazy though. About 9pm, I heard footsteps coming down our foyer. I said to Dave, "someone is there!" Then I heard footsteps running. When I got to the stairs, Ava was already to the top and very sheepish about coming back down when I asked her to. Finally, she came down and the look on her face would tell you she knew she did something wrong. She also had a very heavy load of Tinkerbell Lip gloss all over her face. It was all very funny to us being this was our first experience of a kid wandering out of bed at night. About ten years of kids and this was the first time. Now, I think that's pretty good!!

So, with a 3 1/2 year old still in a crib, Ava's safety at hand, and a new baby coming - time to move Ava out of her crib and into a regular bed. We also decided to have Amelia and Ava share a room being Amelia's room is pretty large and she wishes she could have sleepovers with her sister on a regular basis. So, this weekend we set everything up (Amelia with new firefly bedding and Ava with new princess/mermaid bedding), and a minor disagreement with Ava on Sunday night that maybe for my sake she could just sleep in her crib just one more night for all of us and our peaceful nighttime - nope Ava insisted she wanted to sleep in her bed in her new room. The rules: no talking, no getting out of bed, blah, blah, blah. Well, no one fell out of bed, but there was a lot of silliness and kneeling on nightstands and so on, but we have survived two nights now without major incident.

After the first night, I was telling my mom on the phone in front of Amelia that the girls did great in their new room and no one got out of their beds. Amelia quickly corrected me and said, "Oh, Mom - we got out of our beds". I asked Amelia to tell her teachers today about her new arrangement. She told them about the room she now shares with Ava. Her teacher asked, what did you do once you went to bed? She answered, "we drank beer". We will all get used to this new arrangement. I just know it.

One last bitty change....the photo above is Ava at 5pm over the weekend crashed out on the couch. Seems she stopped taking a nap now too.... Shooot!!!!