Sleeping in your OWN BED Has it's Privileges!!

From two people who claimed they would "NEVER HAVE KIDS IN THEIR BEDS" it sure is interesting how we

• Ended up with kids in the bed
• Took so long to stop  having kid (and then kids) in bed

It basically boils down to laziness.  My sister told me on a number of occasion's that it is sometimes just easier to 'give in'.  David has said since Maran's arrival 'YOU HAVE TO CHOOSE YOUR BATTLES'.... my thought was ----"BATTLES...these are children why do I (the supposed adult) have to choose when I AM DEALING WITH TODDLERS".......

WELL ENOUGH SAID.....so we decided on a Thursday night that they were getting thrown out of our room (go ahead and laugh at me and gasp at the fact that they were in our room with us....however they had both been removed from our bed for a while and on a blow up air mattress at the foot of the bed).  It was clearly evident after the first few nights of being in "their own room and their own beds" just how "BAD" the quality of sleep was that we had  ALL been getting. 

Maran had no problems.  Luke had a little more than she did but not as bad as we thought.  The first night we had to put Luke back in the bed about 3 times.  Maran woke up crying and had to go potty.  After her potty trip she cruised through the night and woke a little after 8 am.  Luke woke WITH THE SUN and came to our room as he knows the rule is "WHEN THE SUN COMES UP YOU CAN COME INTO MOMMY AND DADDY'S ROOM".  When I was a kid and the sun came up I wanted to be the first one into the kitchen to scarf the good cereal (even more so if Mom had just been grocery shopping and some Lucky Charms were waiting). 

After almost a month of being in their OWN ROOMS and their own beds twice we have woken up to find Luke in the bed with us.  NO clue of when he got there or how long he had been there but he snuck his way in.  (Weird for me as I often lay there at night listening to them breathe or most of the time snore). 

Maran woke many nights and cried because she had to potty.  It took a while for us to understand that we guess she was 'not allowed' to get out of her bed/toddler bed/crib in the orphanage so after telling her she could get up and go potty we have not had a 'middle of the night' cry from her since.  She will indeed get up, go potty, wash her hands, brush her teeth (AGAIN) if I have forgotten to hide her toothbrush and then return pretty quietly to bed.  Luke would prefer to cry for you to come and get him, CARRY him to the potty and then forget that he sleeps in his own bed and accidentally take him back to your bed. Difference between the two is extreme and so precious all in one. 

Of course we used the 'if you do this technique then you get this'.  Since it was clearly OUR PROBLEM that we had allowed this to occur then we figured we should reward them since we were the issue.  Laziness, or  whatever you want to call it, paid off for our kids as they were duly rewarded.  There was such little resistance to sleeping in their own beds it is truly sad that we didn't do it a long time ago.  When we first got Maran she wanted to sleep in her own bed but preferred to have others in the room (due to the orphanage setting). 

 Lil' Miss Sassafrass Loves her Bed Tent and still wants it on her bed.  She actually got Jessie from the Toddler Shower that David's office gave us but for some reason thought she got it also for sleeping in her own bed...either way it worked!

 Jessie sleeps with Maran every night. 

Luke received the BIG BUZZ LIGHTYEAR for sleeping in his bed.  However, most days he has lost the 'use of it' if he is rude or not nice to Maran or uses the "B" word.  OH GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF THE GUTTER....he likes to call his 'bottom' the word that many of us call it and he thinks it sounds neat when said.  When busted Luke will then con Maran into letting him play with her smaller Buzz.  Big Brothers have such a way to 'work the system'.