UPDATE: And.... never mind. After two and a half weeks, the roommate experiment failed. Saturday night they gave the sitter a hard time. Sunday at naps they drove Kyle crazy. He finally pulled the Manimal's mattress off his bed and tossed it back into his original room. Tonight we moved his bed. I am so sad about it because they LOVED being together. It was so cute. But that was also the problem. They just egged each other on. They'd giggle and start showing off and the next thing you know they are having a full on party and that's not ok. And it seemed cruel to both them and us to keep this situation where they kept getting in trouble. We have to teach our children not only to resist temptation, but to flee from it. To get out of the situation if you're going to get in trouble. So, they are separated again. The funny thing is, they are actually both pretty happy. They were exhausted. They've both slept SO much better this week. They love each other, but all that love benefits from calm nights on their own. Hamish asked if maybe we could try again when they are older, but no one objected to the move now. So it was the right call.

It's been a week and I think we can officially say that Hamish and the Manimal are roommates.

This plan has always been in our minds. The Manimal's nursery is small and has no closet; Hamish's room is large and has plenty of space. But over the past few weeks Hamish has begged each night to let the Manimal sleep with her. We tried a few times and it just didn't work. Someone was kicking. Someone was stealing covers or bed friends. Every time the Manimal would call us crying an hour later wanting to go to his own bed.

We had slightly better luck when we traveled and it made sense for them to share a bed, but even then we would make an emergency pallet and someone ended up there.

Last week, sort of on a whim, Kyle dismantled the Manimal's bed and moved it into Hamish's room while the rest of us were reading stories. When we took them upstairs to show them, they were absolutely giddy. Bedtime that first night was an extremely prolonged affair with lots of giggling and roaming around the room. In this room there are lamps the Manimal can reach, and toys, and books. He was drunk on his freedom. Hamish was drunk on an audience.

Since then we've had better and worse nights but we haven't had to separate them. In fact, two nights after we made the move, I collected the Manimal one afternoon after nap. Hamish was still snoozing so I shut the bedroom door to take the Manimal downstairs to play. He promptly lost it. "My own room!" he wailed. "My own room!" I assured him over and over that it was still his room, I was just letting Sissy sleep.

This Saturday was the highlight of the week. Hamish knows she can get up when her clock say 7:00. The Manimal has a lamp on a timer (also set to 7), and he knows he can get up when his light comes on. I woke up with a start at 8:15, surprised to still be in bed. I went to check on them and they were sitting together in the rocking chair reading books. Lovely.