Room Sharing - AKA The Padded Room

I moved Ninja's bed into Gambit's room yesterday now that Gambit is sleeping through the night (sort of). It was always my intention to have the boys share a room. I think while they are young they will enjoy it, and hopefully can have some fun memories when they get older. I should have prepared myself better for the transition.

It didn't really help by trying to put them to bed early. That was my first mistake. But it was Friday night, my husband had been working late almost every night that week, and I was absolutely at the end of my rope. I just wanted them to go to bed so I could sit with some peace and quiet. We did the whole routine, got the pj's on, Ninja was excited to be with Gambit, and then all went downhill.

They weren't tired (clearly, but I so badly wanted them to be!) so they played, and talked, and sang. That was all well and good until it got very quiet. "Hmm," I'm thinking to myself. There is no way that they actually fell asleep already. "Oh crap!" is my next thought (here comes mistake number two). "I forgot to take the art supplies out of the closet." This includes, markers, paper, play doh, past art projects, and other random things that I don't want the kids touching. Sure enough, I peek in and Ninja is surrounded by all this stuff on the floor (Gambit had, miraculously, fallen asleep). I quickly start cleaning it up, thank goodness he hadn't started "decorating" the carpet yet. Ninja is clearly peeved that I am trying to stifle his artistic talent. I tell him I'm all for his budding artistry, but only during certain hours of the day when he is well supervised. Ninja begins to throw a fit while I am frantically trying to find all the caps to the markers. This, of course, wakes up Gambit who begins his high-pitched, sonar radar quality shriek. With both kids in hysterics, and my rapidly moving in that direction, I manage to fumble my way through the abyss of paper mache', play doh cups, and confetti pieces, and move it all into what is now the play room.

I calm Gambit down and half heartedly tuck Ninja back into bed. A few minutes later Gambit has gone back into dreamland, and Ninja has decided he needs to train his vocal chords so he can be eligible for the Best New Artist Grammy. Ugh. "Ninja," I say as I'm peeking through the door. "Remember we need to be quiet now because Gambit is sleeping." He then gets a very sad look on his face and says "But Mommy, I want to scream." Oh good grief child! You've never screamed in you whole life and you want to do it now?

So after many trips downstairs to get cups of water, baggies of cinnomon toast crunch, more pillows (because 3 just isn't enough), they were finally both asleep. Ahh, the blissful sound of silence! I think I'll be needing that padded room after all, for myself.