Wednesday, January 07, 2009

And Boom Goes the Dynamite

On Sunday, neither one of the kids slept. Those of you that know me would think that my head exploded that day, because if there is one thing that bothers me, it's a child skipping a nap. Especially 2 year old boys who need naps to be human the rest of the day.

Sunday was different, though. Alison partially moved into Oliver's room over Christmas so family could sleep in her room. Now she doesn't want to move back. I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, if we completely move Alison into Oliver's room and get them bunk beds, which would make the most sense space-wise, we'd have a spare room upstairs. I have dreams of making one corner a 'book corner' for reading and having a little table for them to color and having a place that's not the living room to put their toys. On the other hand, I love Alison's room. It's girly without being too girly, and it holds a lot of memories for me. I rememer being pregnant and painting and putting the crib together and standing in there wondering what it would be like to bring a baby home and have it sleep in that crib and rock it in that chair. I remember taking the crib down and putting together her new big-girl bed (which is also perfect for that room) and how excited she was to sleep in it. I love the color of the walls and the painted trim and the flower hooks and the rug and her nightstand with books and her plant on it. It's all just so Alison.

But Alison and Oliver are also enjoying forging new memories in the room they share now. Sunday afternoon a few minutes after laying both of them down and sitting on the couch to relax and watch some television, Alison came walking out into the living room. "Oliver is sitting up in his crib", she announced. I'm pretty sure Oliver was sitting up because Alison was walking around the room gathering books to bring back to bed with her. I went back in, settled everyone down, and came back out to collapse on the couch for an hour. A few minutes later, after hearing some rustling from their room, Alison came back out again. "Oliver is talking to me", she said. This time it was Silas's turn to settle them back in. Once again, more rustling. Alison reappears. "Oliver wants to sleep in the chair because I am sleeping in the chair." This one takes a while, but after we convince them that no one is sleeping in the chair even though it's so 'comfortable', we come back out into the living room. "I'm pretty sure this time it's going to stick", I tell Silas confidantly.

We are watching T.V. when we hear giggling. We sneak down the hallway and stand outside their door. "Chicken butt!" Alison says. Oliver belly laughs. When he stops, Alison does it again. "Oliver, Chicken butt!" Peals of laughter ring out from the direction of his crib. "Addi, jhick-en butt!" Oliver says. They both start laughing.

It was about the cutest thing we'd ever heard. Si and I ended up bringing them both out to the living room to watch "Cars" where this eventually happened:
Maybe I can let go of another piece of Alison's babyhood if it means they learn how much fun it is to make each other laugh.