Roomie Intervention - Take 1

Our new bedroom set came in today and with it our new dresser. As such, we spent all day moving the kids together. We were waiting for the dresser so we could move Malia's clothes from her room to mine as Kael's closet is packed. And since her clothes moved, there was no reason to not move the baby too.

Kael didn't nap today (we did that on purpose so he'd be nice and tired for bedtime since we expected he'd be the problem child). Malia took about 40 minutes to finally nap but when she did, she napped for about 2 hours. So naptime was a success.

We did the usual for bedtime: shower, PJ's and storytime. We read Kael's story in his bed, then we read Malia's story in the glider with Kael listening from his bed. Lights off, hugs and kisses, goodnight to the Wonder Pets (Linny, Tuck and Ming-Ming too) and the Backyardigans (Uniqua, Tyrone and Pablo) and last hugs and kisses from the crib. We've been coaching Kael all day about teaching Malia proper sleeping habits (staying in bed, closing your eyes, no talking, etc.) so he'd set a good example.

That was at a little before 8:00pm. I took off to run some errands. I get a phone call from Truong at 8:30pm (I was almost home already) telling me that the kids aren't asleep yet. "Well, what are they doing?" I ask. He tells me they are talking, having a dialog about the stuffed animals and Malia just asked if Kael was OK. I told him that's to be expected and it will probably take about a week or so for them to get used to sharing a room. I get home and he calls me upstairs -- QUICK, take a look at this!

I run up and we both look at the video monitor: Kael is in Malia's crib, legs tucked into the pillowcase like a sleeping bag, rolling around like pigs in a blanket. Malia is jumping on him, WWF-style. She ends up riding his back like a horse and says "Giddyap Horsey!" They wrestle a little more and just as I tell Truong to calmly go in there to settle the kids down again, Kael decides to climb out. So we wait and watch. Malia hangs over the crib railing and starts calling out: "Come back, Kael! Come in! Kael! Come back, get in!" She beckons him with her hands. I hear him say "OK!" and starts the climb back in. Truong quickly walks into the room and discovers that Malia's pooped. So he sends Kael back to his bed and changes Malia's diaper.

Truong puts her back in and reminds Kael to stay in his bed. He comes out and we both watch the monitor. It's like watching "Big Brother" but in real life. She calls to Kael and he actually tells her to go to sleep. She lies down for a bit but pops back up again, trying to get him to come over. It's now 9:00pm and she's still trying to entice him to play. Kael, for his part, is sounding tired and not responding as much as she would like. Unfortunately, she's starting to yell out his name when he doesn't respond. After repeatedly screaming his name, I finally hear Kael tell her, in a very sleepy voice: "Yes, that's my name! Go to sleep, Malia!" Poor Kael. He's got to be incredibly tired.

It's now 9:23pm and Malia's finally stopped talking and yelling for Kael. From his earlier muffled responses, I think he's under the covers as that's his preferred place to sleep. I actually think he's asleep. We're now just waiting for Malia to sleep. She's still thrashing around but at least she's stopped calling for him.