Two Boys Sharing a Room

About three weeks ago we made the big switch--we moved Finley into Braden's room.  After much Craigslisting and Ikeaing, their room was ready to go.  (One of my blog ambitions is to write about Craigslist because I do it with the best of them... but that's for another day.)  Braden's room is huge and weird shaped.  It's functioned as a office, guest room, nursery and combination of the three since we moved in.  Now it's "THE BOYS' ROOM."  Or "my room and Braden's room" if you ask Finley.

Ta-da!  The two cribs fit perfectly on the long wall.  Of course, I wish Finley's crib was white and that Sol would let me repaint the walls lighter... but we'll survive.

We kept them both in cribs since they are smaller than getting Finley a big bed, and he's already demolished the inside of his crib with his brace.  We'll move him to a big bed eventually, but considering how well the room move has gone, we're probably still a ways off.

You can see their name prints at the head of each of their bed--and they each have their very own basket of stuffed animals and window to pull the curtains on!

It started out great, Finley was ecstatic to sleep in the same room as Braden.  We established some bedtime rules: lay down, be quiet, and close your eyes.  Finn can repeat them to you verbatim.  Can he follow them?  Probably.  Does he?  Nope.

The room has two Ikea Expedit shelves and we're using the Hemnes dresser as a changing table.  The shelves are awesome--assembling the dresser was NOT.  There's a wet bag hanging on the end of the dresser for Braden's cloth diapers.

Finley was great for a few days.  Then he realized that when he was loud we took him out of the bed to discipline him--and he really liked that.  He would happily take his consequence if it meant a brief break from his bed.

We have a Lorex video monitor surveillancing each crib so we can keep an eye on their shenanigans--you can see the camera mounted on the shelf in the middle. 

He also became obsessed with the helicopters that frequently fly over our house to the hospital down the street.  He would pull back the curtains and break the mini blinds and scream and yell and scream more about the helicopters.  Once he got so mad he managed to get OUT of his crib with his brace on and crawl to the door.  Heartbreaking.  And maddening.

These prints are available in our Etsy shop--they were the best ones I could think of for brothers!  I obviously think I'm hilarious.  The prints are in the Ikea Ribba frames.

I let him sleep with a special pillow, listen to music, moved him to the lonely, empty pack and play in the office if he was loud--none of it worked.  He's become a master of telling us he needs to pee, poop or get water to get out.  He's a true two year old!

Braden's room was slightly giraffe themed and Finley's room was overwhelmingly monkey themed--both guys get a place of honor on the dresser.

What's worked the best is telling Finley that if he wakes up Braden, he still has to stay in his bed but Braden will go sleep in the office.  And when he cries and says, "I need Daddy to give me a spanking!" we laugh a little, but tell him that he's getting his spanking IN his crib, not out of it.  Luckily, they nap well together.  They pretty much sleep through each other's noise which is amazing and such a blessing.  Finley has to be pretty mad to wake up Braden--and most of the time he ends up sleeping through screaming and waking up when he hears the floor boards squeak when we come in to get Finley.

How long do you think all these toys stay in their proper place?  Not. Very. Long.

I'm confident we'll get the hang of it--and it's too late now to turn back.  We sold the guest bed and are beyond thrilled to have Finley's room back for OUR stuff.  And even more thrilled that most of the toys are not in the main room of our house.  We're beginning to feel like we live in a grown up house and not a day care!