Since We're Getting Real....

A few days ago, I took part in Angel's "Get Real Challenge" and mentioned how Nandi has been sleeping in our bed and Sim has been sleeping in Nandi's bed. Here's the deal...

Sim cannot sleep in the same bed as Nandi. It doesn't matter if the bed is a mile wide. Nandi will find him, wrap her skinny little legs around him, bury her head in his neck, and sleep that way the whole night. Sounds innocent enough. But she has this thing that she subconsciously does in her sleep. She takes her feet and moves them up and down your leg and gets her toenails right in you. Oh, and she snores. Who'd of known that such a tiny little creature could make such a racket.

Anyway, as much as he loves and adores her, it drives Sim up the wall. So he's been sleeping in her empty twin bed so that he can get a good night sleep.

Now, you might be asking why we have her in our room to start with. Well, because she has terrible night terrors combined with an intense fear of abandonment. We've tried getting her to sleep on her own and it's about near impossible. She can't fall asleep on her own, so one of us would lie down with her in her bed until she fell asleep - but by that time, we had fallen asleep, too - and we'd wake up with terrible cricks in our neck from sleeping half off the bed. And if we actually managed to escape when she finally fell asleep, she would wake up in hysterics. She can easily wake up 12-14 times a night to see if we're still there. So, we weren't doing a good job of establishing trust by laying down with her and then sneaking off as soon as she feel asleep.

So, anyway. That's how Nandini ended up in our bed and Simeon ended up out of it.

Well, I confessed this on my "Get Real" post. And my friend Sandwich told me how she and her husband deal with it. (They have a 3 year old little boy who was Nandi's friend at the orphanage). They scooted a twin bed up against the wall in their bedroom and then put their bed next to it. Well, we don't have any extra space in our bedroom because our bedroom also doubles as a homeschooling room.

Doesn't that just scream romantic to you???

Clearly, we have space issues.

Besides, I didn't want to permanently move Nandi's bed into our room because then it would symbolize that she's actually going to sleep in our room.

And then I thought... uh, isn't that what's happening anyway? And isn't it better to get Sim back into the room? That's the point, right?

Oh, and let me just say a quick word to any of you youngun's reading this post. Don't go thinking this will never happen to you. Wait until you have kids. It.Changes.Everything.

So, I spent all day yesterday reconfiguring and rearranging.

This is what I started with.....





Yes. That's our bedroom. Shocking, isn't it? Hey, I said I was Getting Real.

If you've ever visited our house and wondered how we got it to be so clean... now you know. I shove everything into the bedroom and shut the door. I once actually stuffed a rocking chair into our master bathroom in order for our guests to think our living room was clutter free.

Thank goodness two of them didn't have to pee at the same time. My secret would've been revealed.

So, yes. That's our dirty little secret. Literally. Clothes everywhere. Some folded. Some not. Some dirty. Some clean. There's a wire basket under the dresser that contains all the mismatched socks that come from the dryer. Yes, that's a suitcase in the middle of the floor. Yes, I have been home from Austin for nearly three weeks. No, I haven't unpacked.

Confession time. I came home from India in November and my suitcase remained in the floor of our bedroom until the end of February.

I'm sure this comes as no surprise to those of you who shared a living space with me in college.

Anyway, this is what I did. I decided to move our homeschooling stuff into Nandi's room and move Nandi's rollaway bed into our room. Yes, she has a trundle. No, I'm not even going to try and explain why we didn't just sleep on the trundle in her room.

Nothing in our life is ever achieved simply.

After spending all afternoon working on it (we had swim lessons in the morning), this is the finished result:





And this is what Nandi's Room/The Homeschooling Room now looks like:





I am proud to say that Sim is now back in the bedroom!

You can interpret that anyway you want. (wink wink)

Nandi slept in her own bed last night. She didn't wake up once! I think she actually enjoyed having her own bed, but felt safe and comfortable knowing that we were in the same room. Will she stay in our room forever? Uh, NO. But for now? Yes.

So there ya have it. I owe it to you Sandwich. Thanks for the suggestion!

Oh. And lest you think I'm some kind of Superwoman who can manage to rearrange the house, switch out rooms, homeschool, entertain three demanding children and have supper on the table by 6:00. Think again....



Well. I had to find somewhere to shove everything before Sim came home.

Guess you know what's on my agenda for today.