The Boys Room

Changing up the boy's room was almost a necessity with the new baby coming.  We have 3 bedrooms upstairs and another 2 that could be bedrooms downstairs (they're currently used as a storage room and a guest room with no fire exit- window well with a grate that's soddered shut and door next to the 2 furnaces in the home- so nope, no kids get to sleep there yet!)

I'll let Miles share with the baby once she's sleeping through the night, but for now all 3 boys get to be together.  Which wouldn't have worked before when Ethan and Isaac were literally on the floor with just matresses.

So just in time, we painted the room a fun blue and hung up all the twirly ceiling things we've collected/been given over the years that have been in boxes.  And Miles crib (along with the tent to trap in him) got moved in.  And new dressers to fit all the boy clothes.

The one issue with putting them all in the same room is their different sleeping schedules.  Miles still takes and nap and sleeps from 7:30 at night to most days after 7am.  Isaac can keep the same night schedule but Ethan needs a lot less sleep.  Sadly I'm a mean mom and since he doesn't yet know other 7 years olds get to stay up, he still goes to bed at 7:30... he just doesn't fall asleep then and so they often end up playing.
Solution:  reading lights!  Miles is trapped in his tent and if the big boys ignore him he gives up and goes to sleep.  Ethan and Isaac get to pick a few books and then Taylor found an ingenius device at Home Depot that the lights plug into so they only can be turned on when we set the device to let them.  So they get light from 7:30 until 8:30 and they automatically turn off.  By then one or both of them has already passed out and even if they haven't they're pretty ready to sleep after laying down and reading quietly for an hour.
So far the lights work about 3/4 of the time.  And when they're just in a mood to play, they lose the lights.. and other privileges the next day so we're making it work.

We knew we needed/wanted bunkbeds for the space and we ended up getting the stairs since they're still so little and one of them occasionally holds it too long and RUNS to the bathroom.  I'm happier with him bounding down stairs than jumping or sliding down a ladder when nature calls- plus there's more drawers in the side and we can never have too much storage.

We got our outside lights fixed last summer which has been great for security but bad for little boys going to sleep with lights blazing right outside their room.  So one of Taylor's requests was that I make them some blackout curtains.  I found a cute pirate fabric and added the blackout backing and tadaa! dark room- even in the middle of the day!  Necessary since we live so far north and from June to August it's light at 5:30 and not dark until almost 10pm.

And since we're doing a lot of reading in this room lately we found room for a good sized bookshelf.  I kind of love that the top 2 shelves are chapter books.  Ethan has a growing collection.  I keep trying to convince him to try something OTHER than Captain Underpants but he and Miles think they are absolutely hilarious.  Seriously?  When Miles takes his nap I let him pick a book or two to take in his crib with him to look at while he falls asleep.  He almost always pick Captain Underpants.  He can't read but man does he love to laugh at the pictures.  BOYS!?!