Musical Beds

On January 1, 2012, our household passed an enormous milestone:

Matthew climbed out the of the crib. 

And out.
And out.
And out.

It was clear that the crib's time had come.  Since we didn't have a bed available for him, we tried just taking a side off of the crib and turning into a day bed, but he kept falling out.  This didn't particularly bother him, but it bothered his mother, so sadly we dismantled the crib for the final time and resorted to putting Matthew to sleep in his brother's bed...with his brother.

This arrangement made both boys more than happy, but it still bothered me that Matthew did not have his own bed.  Wouldn't this scar him in some way?  Would he grow up to tell his therapist "I never had anything of my own...they sold my car seat...and they NEVER GAVE ME A BED!" 

In mentioning this to a  friend one day, she graciously offered their old toddler bed as an option.  We had not done toddler beds up to this point - Joshua and Anna had just moved directly into the twin-sized trundle bed that has been in my family for generations - but in this case, a toddler bed was the perfect solution.  It fit into the kids' room with ease, and it meant we did not have to purchase a mattress - the crib mattress fit nicely.  Matthew loved the idea of "his bed," so all was well.

Until we went to actually put him in the bed.  At which point he climbed right out and got back into bed with Joshua.

We tried to convince him that he had his own bed in which to sleep, to no avail.  The boys had gotten used to sharing a bed, so they continued to choose to sleep together.  Which, in the grand scheme of things, really isn't that big of a deal. 

The toddler bed, in the meantime, was put to all sorts of uses.  While it was apparently not going to be used for an actual bed anytime soon, it was a great place to dump toys you didn't want to put away, or tuck in all of Anna's "babies" that needed naptime, or to be used as a sailing ship, race car, or rocket ship.  It did not, however, get much use as a bed.

That is, until the other night when Joshua asked if he could sleep in it. 

At which point Anna asked if she could sleep in Joshua's bed. 

At this particular moment, Anna and Matthew are asleep in Joshua's bed, and Joshua is asleep in Matthew's bed.  What's more, Matthew took his nap today in Anna's bed.

So what do I think of all of this?  Heck, I don't care just as long as they sleep somewhere...preferrably not my bed.

At least not till 4am.

Which is a whole 'nother blog post in itself.