About 11 months ago, the air conditioner broke on one side of our house. Not the end of the world, but girls’ bedrooms were on that side of the house. In most parts of the country, a broken air conditioner in mid-April wouldn’t mean very much, but in Florida it’s a problem. And by 8pm the thermostat was registering 83 degrees in the girls bedrooms. I couldn’t let them sleep up there. Hell, I didn’t even want to go upstairs to get their pajamas it was so hot and stuffy. I think it was actually hotter inside my house at 8pm than it was outside.
So Erajh and I decided to move the girls to the downstairs office where the air conditioning was working. We made it into a fun slumber party where the girls got to sleep in the office together. We even brought Greenleigh’s toddler bed downstairs. And for 2 days it was fun. Lots of fun. In fact, the girls were thrilled when we found out on day 2 that a part needed to be ordered and it would be at least 24 hours before it could be installed.
But on day 3 the air conditioning was fixed. That night Hazeline agreed to go back up to her room, but Greenleigh did not. And the resistance continued on days 4, 5, 6, 7…and, well, up to now. Although I haven’t been keeping up we’re probably around day 330-ish.
At first, it wasn’t really an issue. We had the space. And when we asked Greenleigh why she didn’t want to sleep upstairs, she said that she felt like she was too far away from us. What parent can argue with that? I thought it was sweet and I know these years are fleeting, so I didn’t fight it. I am a parent who picks their battles, and this wasn’t one that I wanted to fight. So every night, I would tuck Greenleigh into her toddler bed amidst the reams of paper, stacks of files, and those binder clips that seem to multiply overnight. All was well.
But in October – when Everett was born – space became a problem. While it was expected that Everett would spend a couple of months in our bedroom, it was also expected that he would then move out of our bedroom. And at that point, he would need some place to go. When I first found out that I was pregnant, the plan was to use the office as Everett’s transition room before he moved upstairs (and at that point I’d move both girls into Greenleigh’s room and give Hazeline’s room to Everett so I didn’t have to move or disassemble the crib). The office is close to our room and it just made sense to put him in there while he was still waking at night, instead of running across the house and up the stairs every time he woke up.
But the office was occupied.
As Everett’s eviction day neared, I begged, pleaded, forced, insisted, and bribed…but Greenleigh wasn’t budging. And to this day, she won’t move out of the office. So Erajh and I took inventory of the rooms available downstairs and realized only 3 of them had doors – the cabana bathroom, the laundry room, and my husband’s over-sized walk in closet. One of them had to work for Everett.
So as I wrote last week’s post about moving Everett to his own room, what I really should have said was, “I put Everett in his pack and play drowsy but awake and left the room closet. And that’s where he’ll stay until it’s time to move him upstairs.” Oh, and don’t worry, I’m starting to save for therapy now because God knows that’s where this is all heading.
Sometimes parenting is doing the best you can with the space that you have…but I’m more than open to any suggestions as to how to get Greenleigh back into her bedroom.
