The wings, while lovely, are a farce. This is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
John is staying here tonight, so I tried something I have NEVER done before – putting the children in the same room. Literally they have never shared a room. Not once. I’m ashamed of this – it’s one of those things like not being able to drive stick and never having tasted an oyster that I just should suck up and do. I made a little bed for Grace on the floor, with a folded up comforter as a mattress and her sleeping bag from Quincy on top. She was very excited. We talked at great length about the rules: this was a special treat, everybody had to sleep, sleep all night without any peeps, and go to sleep without yelling or crying. Or else I would take Grace out of Whit’s room. We read a book and I tucked them in. All was well.
Until about 10 minutes later when Grace came out of the room and, sighing dramatically like a teenager, informed me that Whit would not be quiet and she could not sleep. I shepherded her back into the room to her “bed” and told them both in no uncertain terms that if I had to come back in the little adventure would be over and I’d find Gracie another, quieter corner of floor. No surprise that ten minutes later I had to make good on this promise. I’m a big believer in keeping your threats, so I hauled the little bed out of the room and made Grace a new nest on the hardwood floor in my room. Like a champ she curled up and went to bed without a sound. Whit, not so much. First he jumped up and down in his crib like a maniac, screaming about how he wanted Gracie back in his room. I went in and told him that I was not going to come back in, that he had heard that he had one more chance and he blew it, and that we would try again another day when he felt like he could be quieter. He’s been in there for about 15 minutes and he is wailing. He started off with “I am a sad boy! A very very sad boy!” which made me giggle in a happy-sad way. Then he addressed Gracie as though she could hear him, pleading for her to “come back to my room! sleep near me! Gracie! I can’t find you!” Now he’s wearing himself out, sobbing intermittently and choking out assertions that “It isn’t fair!” I feel like I am Ferberizing again. But it’s harder because he can actually say what he is thinking.
A failed experiment to say the least.
