The Princess Moved Out

We've got a princess on our hands and it's exhausting. Have you seen Jason's hair lately?

Natalie's recently developed an especially strong sense of independence, a love for all things Disney princess, a fear of random things in the night and the inability to sleep in her own bed. Stir that all up with a brother who's suffering from colds and horrible ear infections and parents who would give just about anything for even five consecutive hours of sleep and you've got, well, a mess.

When Natalie woke us all up early Sunday morning crying and then throwing one of her all-out-oh-my-gosh-the-neighbors-are-going-to- call-the-cops-on-us fits when Jason tried to put her back to bed, I sprung out of bed, burst into her room and announced (over the crying Gavin, mind you) that she could either sleep in her toddler bed in her room with Gavin or move to the exciting BIG GIRL bed down the hall (in the guest room...but I left that part out.)

"Ummm, the big girl bed?" she looked up at me confused.

"Grab your babies and blankies and let's go!" I cheered, hoping my perky attitude (unlike my usual middle of the night gloominess) would be enough to make this all work.

We piled all of her stuffed friends in the bed, put up the safety rail, plugged in a night light and tucked her in. And she slept.

Come morning, I continued to hype up the big girl room and she bit. I reeled her in with promises of Ariel decorations and a princess theme -- and, naturally, a coat of pink paint.

And let me say. Last night was simply GLORIOUS! Gavin woke up once and needed a paci. And Natalie slept like a princess in her new bed. The Whole Night!

I miss having them room together. I liked the fact they were at least spending that extra time together, waking up to someone else in the room. But now we can let her have those huge tantrums, if she needs them, without fearing that we'll have the baby up too. We can crack
down on a few bad night waking problems one at a time, without creating new ones. As a bonus, they each have more room to play, sleep and read, and their own places to get away for some quiet time.

Besides, Gavin can now officially avoid having a princess room.