Big Kids' room.

Pretty much from the moment I found out I was pregnant with #3, my mind started playing out a million different scenarios in regards to how we'd fit this new little one into our lives - more specifically, our house. We have a 4 bedroom house, so the quick answer was to give each child his/her own room. But that left us without an office, something I use constantly for bow-making/present-wrapping/junk-piling. So after a little convincing, the husband and I finally agreed that our big kids would share a room for a while. (He didn't share a room growing up; I've had to share a room with someone all but 1-2 years of my 29 years of life, so I knew it wouldn't kill them.) They're so young now, & everyone is on the same schedule; this is the perfect time to do it.

We wanted to give Joe plenty of time to get used to his Big Boy bed and Big Kid room before Baby Reeder gets here, so immediately after Christmas we got started. After a week or 2 of clearing out the former office (which was a huge job - thanks for the help, Mom!), it was ready to be transformed.

One of the husband's biggest hesitations with the room-sharing thing was how to create a shared space for a boy & a girl. Brooke already had bedding, so we ended up getting Joe a quilt from the same store so they'd at least somewhat go together. We picked a neutral wall color (the gray from Joe's quilt, which we told Brooke was "silver", one of her favorite colors) and just decorated each side of the room to match their bedding/personality. I'm really happy with how it turned out and the kids were/are ecstatic!

Joe was ready to sleep in his "car bed" on Day One. We were planning to just do naps in there for a while until he got used to it, but he was insistent on sleeping in there with his big sister right away. It's been over a month now and things are going as well as can be expected. We're struggling with the whole staying in bed thing; he loves to come downstairs with all sorts of excuses for what he needs. We currently have a sticker chart that seems to be helping; last night was the very first night he didn't get out of bed once! Brooke is handling it really well. She's usually so exhausted that she falls right to sleep, even with him babbling in his bed and getting up and down a million times. And they're doing a much better job of sneaking out of bed quietly in the morning and letting their sibling sleep. Overall, I'm really happy we made this transition when we did & that the room-sharing is going really well. On a related note, the nursery is clean & newborn-ready :)