Moving in...

If you were to look up our address on Zillow, it would tell you that our modest little Cape Cod has five bedrooms. In my mind, it's more of a 3.5 bedroom house, with two on the main level (which we currently use as a guest bedroom and an office) and three on the upper level (one of which is teeney tiny, but perfect for a nursery). George and I have been talking for a long time about eventually having both girls in one of the larger rooms upstairs. Two twin beds would fit nicely, we think. And then the two of them could talk and giggle together at night. And eventually, one or both of them will want their own private space, at which point, one girl would have to concede to move into the walk-in-closet/nursery. Or, we'd have to move our bedroom to the main level (which might be good for potential late-night sneaking out). But we'll cross that bridge when we get there. Let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Two Sundays ago, we were getting the girls ready for bed. Usually they take a bath together, go to Kayla's room to get them both dressed and read two bedtime books before settling Jocie into her crib in her room, and then tuck Kayla into her bed. George was putting jammies on Kayla and asked her, "Kayla, someday do you want to share your room with Jocie?"

To our utter shock, Kayla answered, "NO!!!"

And so I said something to the effect of, "But won't it be nice to share a room with Jocelyn? You won't be so lonely."

Suddenly, the light bulb turned on in Kayla's head. She said, "I want Jocie to sleep in my room!"

We were relieved. Phew, she's willing to share her room after all.

But we weren't ready for the words that came out of Kayla's mouth next:
"I want Jocie to sleep in my room TODAY!!"

If you've ever assembled a crib, you know that it's not a quick and easy task. It takes some time (and tools) to disassemble and reassemble. George and I told Kayla that Jocelyn could move into her room sometime the next week. But Kayla wouldn't have any of it. "TODAY! NOW!!"

So we compromised. George said, "Maybe tomorrow Daddy can move Jocie's crib into your room."

But it was too late. The idea was already planted in her head. Kayla was sobbing. We ended up turning off the lights and closing her door while she wailed, "I want Jocie to sleep in my room! I'm gonna be SO LONELY!!" Really?! (I have no idea where Kayla gets her dramatic flair from. ;-)

On Monday, George was able to disassemble and reassemble the crib in under an hour. (It's a good thing he's mechanically inclined!) Kayla was excited. Poor Jocelyn had no idea what was going on. She kept pointing to the pieces of her crib and toddling back to her now-empty nursery.

The first night was a disaster. Jocelyn, who normally went to sleep so quickly and easily in her old room, cried for what seemed like hours. I think Kayla started crying too, because her bed was now in a different corner of the room. On Tuesday, we moved Kayla's bed back to its old corner, and the crib on the opposite side of the room so they could "see" each other at night. Jocelyn cried again that night.

Gradually, the crying ceased. However, by Friday, we had a different problem on our hands. Now Jocelyn was tossing her blanket, pillow pet and other toys out of her crib and Kayla was getting up to fetch them and return them to Jocelyn. Very cute and sweet, but not conducive to allowing a non-napping 3 year old fall asleep. Nap time that first weekend was a disaster. They kept talking and yelling and I could her Jocelyn jumping and plopping on to her crib -- I don't think either of them napped that Saturday.

We are now beginning Week 3 of sharing a room. Thankfully, there is no more crying, but there is a lot more yapping. Which, I suppose, is what we wanted, just not quite THIS early of an age. We were up at my parents' in Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving and the two of them shared a room there, too. This morning, I woke up hearing Kayla singing a "Tiny Ditty" from her favorite TV show, Dinosaur Train. Kayla would sing, "If I could wish, for just one dish, my greatest wish, would be more..."

and Jocelyn would finish off by singing, "ISH!!!!" (which means "fish.") This went on and on several times before I finally decided to get them out of bed. They sang the song again when they were supposed to be napping at home today. If they do it again, I'll have to record it somehow through the baby monitor.

I really love how they are playing and interacting more together. Up until a few months ago, they were largely parallel playing (playing together in the same room but with different toys, doing their own separate things). These days, they will "talk," dance and try to make each other laugh. A couple of days before Thanksgiving, Jocelyn started wiggling to the Dinosaur Train theme song at the end of the show. Kayla started dancing too. When the show was over, I asked them if they wanted to dance some more. At that point, Kayla requested "the spiderweb song." We popped in the No Doubt CD (can you tell I grew up in the 90's?? although now that I think about it, I'm not sure if it was originally my CD or George's). Each girl started dancing. Jocelyn picked up one of Kayla's many stuffed Piggies and started dancing with it. Kayla thought it was hilarious and started doing the same thing. It was a riot.

Last night, we had dinner at Limoncello, an Italian restaurant in West Chester, to meet Aiyi Melissa's future family-in-law. For dessert, George and I ordered a chocolate souffle, which was absolutely yummy. We split it among the four of us, but the drama began when Kayla wanted the blackberry perched beautifully on top of the souffle. I cut it in half and each girl got a portion. Aiyi, who is not a fan of berries, gave her blackberry to Jocelyn, but Kayla-the-berry-monster was not happy about this. Jocelyn was very busy stabbing her blackberry with her fork and Kayla was about to throw an uber-tantrum about the blackberry (which would have been horrifying in front of the future-in-laws) when Jocelyn finally succeeded in getting the blackberry on her fork, she immediately turned to Kayla and fed it to her.

It was the most touching moment ever.