Two boys, one room
After months of The Elder sleeping with his feet off the bed, we decided to bump him up to a twin. Yes, we had a nearly 5-year-old sleeping in a toddler bed. He technically fit. He just, um, fell out a lot whenever he had to turn or move an arm or talk or something. But he had like, two whole inches left in height. See, we are good people. Two inches. That’s plenty! Really.
So, the first night in the new frame was rough. Not his first night in the new bed. In the frame. We hadn’t gotten it together to order the new mattress yet, so he got to sleep in our guest air bed/flotation device with his cool new theoretically glow-in-the-dark bedding, which of course he can’t really see since we make him sleep with a night light.
And with his little brother.
Well, not in the same bed, but in the same room. Which usually goes just fine. Except when the elder is so excited about a new bed: A half-hour after they allegedly went to sleep, we heard tiny footsteps. A tiny voice declared, “We’re ninjas!”
The first responders found an incoming kindergartner and recently wakened 2-year-old saying “Ya!” and karate-chopping the air in the upstairs hallway. Yes, my 25-month-old is imitating kung fu, since he clearly runs with the wrong crowd, i.e., his older brother.
The alternative to putting them in an environment where they can wake each other up at will and perform oddly choreographed bits, however, is to put one or both of them in a room downstairs, and give them access to the door, the patio, the garden, the streets. Instead of waking to find a toddler wandering the hall, we’d be heading to the local tavern to clear up the bill and push a trike home.
So, for us, it’s very bad imitation kung fu, and no bunk beds. Ah, yes, no bunk beds. They’re just an extraordinarily unfortunate event waiting to happen in this house where “Catapult!” is a favorite rallying cry, and where jumping on the bed is a form of daily exercise.
Yes, they jump on the bed. It’s better than paying for the personal trainers, who’d likely quit, anyway. They don’t have that kind of energy.–Jillian O’Connor
Do your kids share a room? Has the arrangement been working? Does anyone sleep?
