Sharing Rooms

Laughing about something

Playing with her remote controlled car

It proved to be a three day experiment. Initially, this was far more than I had expected...

A few weeks ago, I asked my husband why our now 12-month old was still sleeping in our room...After all, she had a comfortable crib set up in her sister's room...Surely far more comfortable than the play-yard in our room?

So we decided to try room-sharing. The tricky part was waiting for our toddler to fall asleep before placing the baby in her crib, as I was sure that our noisy toddler would wake the baby up.  The first three nights were very similar...Our baby fell asleep with her father in our room. About a half an hour later, our toddler was asleep, allowing us to place the baby in her crib. We had a few hours of peace...then the baby woke up.  My husband rocked her back to sleep, and placed her back in the crib. She woke up once more on average. Our toddler, surprisingly, slept through this. She too woke up about once a night, but quickly fell asleep without disturbing her sister.

After the third relatively successful night, our toddler developed a fever, which I attributed to her 1-year vaccines. And for one week, she was cranky and slept poorly, so we returned her to our room. We have yet to retry our experiment. I suspect it will take up to a week for both girls to adjust to the new living conditions.

My husband is currently in sunny California, attending a work-related conference (or so her says). Perhaps upon his return, we will give it another try...

New Shared Room: Tour

The girls' shared room is finally ready...We had some difficulty deciding on our toddler's twin-sized bed. Our toddler moves a lot in her sleep, so an upholstered bed was one of the criteria. Additionally, I had been looking for a single bed that could easily transform into a double bed, eventually allowing our girls to sleep side-by-side, but also freeing up floor space during the day. In the end, I settled on an upholstered bed with an optional trundle by Monte, the same company that made our glider.

For the time being, the shared room is hypothetical. The baby still sleeps in our room. Our toddler currently wakes up on average once per night, whereas our baby girl will wake up two to three times per night. By placing them in the same room, we would be courting disaster. I have no doubt that they will wake each other up, thereby further reducing the amount of sleep their parents enjoy!

Toddler bed returns to crib

Toy storage

Glider with photo of baby above

Can't decide which bed she would rather jump on!

I was afraid she might hit her head against the dresser, but she sticks to the other side 

Monthly baby photos next to sound system

And the most important part...Hello Kitty!

Sharing (or the lack thereof)

Dressing Up

I had been told by a few of my experienced friends that kids don't have a good concept of sharing until about 4 or 5 years of age. So I was pleasantly surprised that our generous baby seemed to have no qualms over sharing. Whether during playgoups, or on play-dates, she would happily proffer the toys she was playing with or food she was eating with other kids her age. Whether they were toys belonging to the playgroup, or her own did not seem to make a difference.

Until this week, that is. We had not had any kids over to our house in some time, due mostly to a hectic work schedule and some traveling. However, this week our baby's friend, three months her junior, came over for a few hours, accompanied by her mother. This is a friend of hers that we had had many play-dates with, and they had always gotten along quite well. 

About half-way through the visit, our Brat did something that shocked me, and simultaneously made me laugh. She started hoarding her toys, and would add any toy that her friend was interested in playing with. At one point, she was sitting on her quadracycle, holding a teddy bear, a doll, and somehow managed to find a way to also grab an abacus as well as a "push" toy called a "colour roller". All because her friend wanted those same toys. I considered getting the camera out, but felt I needed to be there to mediate. However, nothing I said convinced her to share. Yet when her friend left the room, she was clearly looking for her; she obviously enjoyed her company, but felt possessive vis-a-vis her toys.

While I realize she was acting as a typical child her age would, simply developing a sense of identity, I feared future toy fights...especially with her baby sister. So I googled "how to get your toddler to share", and I discovered that most experts suggested it would be a very gradual process, and that teaching by example would be the best strategy. But wasn't I already teaching by example? The very toys she considers her own are in fact my toys that I chose to share with her...