Sharing a room!

There are three other parents at Andy's preschool who have babies aside from their toddlers.  These are the three people that I've aligned myself with during drop off and pick off times.  We're the Sleepless Four (as I refer to ourselves silently) and today I learned that all of us are having our kids share a room.  I'm one of those people who need to know that other people are just like me in order to feel secure.  This goes back to my childhood, when I was the only girl in kindergarten who wore pants on the first day of school and felt so very alone.  If only my mother had put me in a damn dress.  Or if only, if only, one of those other girls had had the kind of mother who thought jeans, a stained t-shirt, and uncombed hair was an appropriate first day of school outfit for a budding young outcast.  Me and that mystery girl, we would have been best friends forever.  Or until we moved to Tinley.  Where, I might add, I also had to share a bedroom.  What kind of family has a house in which their two girls share a room in Midlothian and then go ahead and buy ANOTHER house in a nicer suburb in which their two girls have to share a room AGAIN?  My family, that's who.  But I digress.

Anyway, the other three parents, they all say that so far, the room sharing has gone just fine.  And, I must admit, so far here at the Berger Barn (as I silently refer to our home), the room sharing between Andy and Alex is also going- just fine.  It's been almost two weeks, and Alex has yet to wake up Andy up with his come-hither whimpers.  Alex is a phenomenal sleeper, though, which helps.  He's been fast asleep for full eight hour stretches, which is a length of time that I personally have not had since July 12, 2010.  I'll let you guess what happened on that particular day.

Andy goes to sleep first.  There are stories, milk, the tuck in, the kisses.  Andy insists that I lay down with him for a few minutes, grabbing my shirt in a tight little fist while he mutters "Wait, mommy," every time I move to get up.  I usually give him about five minutes while he gets increasingly drowsy as we quietly rehash his day.  These are the toys we broke today.  These are the kids we made cry today with our rough but well meaning "tickling."  These are the sugary snacks we had today in increasing order of junkiness.  These are the new words we learned today:  Sticky bun.  Dingleberry.  Toe jam.  Bi-otch.

I leave Andy, grab Alex from Chris, and two hours later, after Alex's last bottle of the evening, I sneak Alex into the crib and then head off to my own bed where I sleep with one ear open until five or six when Alex cries out, "Yo, mommy, my diaper weighs like fifteen pounds!"  Or at least that's what I assume he's trying to say.  Alex spends the last hour or two of the morning in bed with me, Andy wakes up at six or so and plays quietly on the stairs until Chris goes and gets him (the stairs are a safe place for a two year old to play, right?), and then the day gets going.  Breakfast, yelling, a time out or two, then off to preschool, the library, or Aldi where Andy hands me the quarter to rent the cart and is very excited to buy some off-brand cookies.  Or, "Kookies," as they're legally required to call them.

So, the room sharing is going good.  But soon enough, I will be trying to sync their bedtimes and get the two boys down at the same time.  I want to start moving up Alex's bedtime until he's ready for that last bottle around seven, Andy's bedtime.  I fear reading both of them their bedtime stories at the same time, though.  It's very difficult to hold a baby, a two year old, and also turn pages at the same time.  I might even go as far as to say that it just can't be done.  But I'll let you know when we get to that point.  And I'll let you know if Alex enjoys the "Twilight" series as much as Andy seems to.  He's on Team Bella.

As much as I feared the room sharing, it really is just something that families have to do.  And there's four of us at preschool who are managing it just fine.  Sleepless Four unite!  I'll have to ask the other parents how their toddlers and babies do with sharing the cart at Aldi.  At least it's a pretty big cart- plenty of room for a two year old, a baby, and lots and lots of kookies.