We The Fosters declare - as of July 4th, 2008 – our independence from Ty The Waffle Eater. No longer will we toss and turn under the tyranny of his mid-night demands for food, attention, or space in our bed. We look forward to restful nights and Saturday morning sleep-ins until 7. We'll miss him, but we will remind ourselves that Ty will be just aross the hall…in his own room.
The Fosters
Before Ty came along and until Independence Day weekend, our bedroom was on the third floor. Some many years ago, the former owners converted the attic into what they named "the master suite". It's a decent-sized room with walls painted a dull yellow - a color I'm not too fond of. The bare windows and skylights keep the room looking bright during the day, but the morning sun can be obnoxious when all we want to do is snooze for an extra 30 minutes. One end of the room opens to a large bathroom. Brown and white tile cover everything - the floor, the counters, the tub surround, the shower stall. The project looks like a tiling project gone wild. Until last summer, the bedroom was more loft than room. One wall opened up to the house's main staircase and the second floor landing below. What it lacked in privacy, it gained in wow-factor from visitors. The upstairs seemed big and expansive.
The bedroom had its quirks, but we liked it. The crew - Juan, Mika, Milo, Rocky and I - had been pretty comfortable there for the past four years, and moving wasn't in the plans. That changed once we started the adoption/foster care home study. We learned the rules about sleeping and bedroom arrangements:
- A child two years old or less could sleep in the same room as the parents.
- A child older than two must be in his/her own room.
- If the parents’ and child’s rooms are separate, they must be on the same floor.
- The room the child sleeps in must be fully enclosed and have a door that will completely close and latch.
Our master suite-loft-bedroom, didn't fit the last criteria, but we expected Junior (our placeholder name for the future kid) would be younger than two. The plan was for him to room with us for at least the first few months. Moving to the second floor was an option, but at the time we just weren’t ready for that. The second-floor rooms are pretty tiny.
We decided to stay where we were, but that meant resolving rule #4. Last summer, we bit the bullet and had a carpenter close off the loft-like opening and hang a door at the entrance to the room. Ty became our roommate in October and the first few months of that arrangement weren't too bad. At 9 months old, he was sleeping through the night and sleeping deeply at that. I think we were both amazed at how much noise you could make around him. Nothing fazed him - barking dogs, sirens (we live right on the emergency-vehicle route of a hospital), noisy neighbors. He slept through it all. That changed about three months ago. I found myself tiptoeing around the house when he slept. Getting ready for work in the mornings became an exercise in ninja-like stealthiness.
After several weeks of indecision, procrastination, and the juggling of other must-do tasks, we decided that there was no better time to move than a three day weekend. After all, what else would we want to do on the 4th of July weekend? Cook out? Go see some fireworks? Visit friends? Take a day trip somewhere fun? No, moving several pieces of furniture between two floors - while somehow managing a 17-month old - seemed so much more fun!
So we moved (and cleaned) - bedroom furniture to the second floor tv room/den; tv room/den to the third floor new family room/playroom; Ty's crib to his own room (which was already the changing-table room and play area for him). It took the entire weekend to do it all. The only casualty was a staircase wall that didn't hold up well. Box springs are not nearly as flexible as mattresses when it comes to going around corners.
Almost three weeks later later and I can definitely say the move is a welcome change. I don't feel so tuned-in to Ty's every movement in that hypersensive way. Our bedroom is darker and very cozy, and we've managed to sleep in until 7 on a couple weekend mornings so far. Typical of Ty, he took the move well. When it comes to bedtime, he's a bit of an oddity anyways. He's the only kid I know that gets giddy-happy when you put him down for bed. Our goodnight ritual includes both of us simultaneously planting a big noisy kiss on each cheek. He seems to get a kick out of that.
And in spite of the fact that we worked our butts of on a holiday weekend, we did have some fun. All work and no play would definitely make for three very crabby guys:
-- D
