Movin' On Up...

 

...to the east side (of the house)!   Obviously Daddy was a fan of the Jeffersons growing up.  Sadly, Riley will never ever know how great of a show that was, but I suppose she will somehow survive...but I digress.  :)   To prepare for little brother's arrival in December, we had to make a decision on how to re-arrange various rooms. 

We decided a few months ago to move the guest bedroom across the hall to what used to be the office.  We did not want to make that room the new nursery or Riley's new room because it shares a wall with the existing nursery/Riley's original room, and we wanted at least some kind of buffer between those rooms.  

So we re-did the guest room and turned that into Riley's new room, and Monday night was the big night.  The room has been finished for a while, but we had a small problem after all was complete:  too much light!   Even though we bought black-out curtains, there was a gap between the curtain and window that was just letting in too much light at the top.  Considering that she often wakes up extremely early, we didn't need that light coming in, because if that happened she probably would not go back to sleep like she often does.

So after some thinking and a lot of work by Mommy, that problem was finally solved for good (we hope) over the weekend.  We had moved all of her toys and books and clothes into the new room and played with her in there just to get her out of the habit of going to the old room.  Seemed to be working fine until the time came to go to bed.  Once she realized she was not in "her" room, she started to cry and said "Don't want it!", but as I was holding her I was pointing out all of her stuffed animals and toys who had moved with her to the new room, letting her know everything was still the same.  

We played our usual "cow-cow-cow...sheep-sheep-sheep" game where we watch the night-time projector's images on the ceiling, and that got her back into a happy mood.  But when she went to Mommy to be laid down, she was crying again.  Instead of giving her her trusted blankie, she asked if she wanted two (we have several of them) and in drawn-out sad voice she replied "Yeeeahhhh".  So with that we put her down.   When we checked the monitor she had not moved an inch, and was laying there clutching both blankies.  Luckily though she went to sleep fairly easily and had a good night.   Around 2:15am she woke and, though I was sound asleep, Mommy watched her on the monitor as she stood up and looked around the room, trying to see her dolls and various other things.  But after that she laid right back down and went back to sleep.

So here's hoping for more good nights ahead as she adjusts to her new digs.   We still have a few more things to add, as the wall behind her bed is still a bit bare, and we plan to add a dress-up area for her in the closet.  The big test will be what happens in a few months when she sees a new baby in her old room.  :)