Musical bedrooms

Back in August, I shared that I was splitting up Lauren & Rachel’s room, and putting Rachel’s bedroom in half of the living room.  Well, we played magical bedrooms once again.

Austin has been having a very hard time waking up in the morning.  Well, Austin has this way with telling us what the problem is first, then dropping little hints here and there as to the cause.  Matty was the cause.  Fragile X kids seem to have this wierd thing about needing minimal sleep.  Matt would go to bed at like 8 p.m. and be wide awake at 3 a.m.  He then would lay in his bed until everyone else starting moving around.  But in those 2+ hours he was jabbering, giggling, and stealing Austin’s covers.  Austin is our night owl so he would be finally going to sleep at about 11 p.m. only to be woke up by Matt at 3 a.m.  The poor teen was not getting adequate rest. 

As a trial, I started having Matt sleep on the couch in the living room to see how him and Rachel meshed.  Matt could wake up and jabber and Rachel wouldn’t be fazed.  Rachel could jabber and grind her teeth in her sleep and Matt would sleep through it. 

So Kevin and I, quite timidly, mentioned to Austin about living in the living room.  He stoked about it until he heard that he couldn’t take any furniture with him….just switch out belongings.  I dropped little hints all week long about the advantages of it.  Plus he started noticing that he could play the PS2 longer if the little kids weren’t in the living room.  His friends could also sleep on the couch when they stay over and, if they stay up all night, they won’t be bothering anyone with their video games and refrigator raids.

We started the move yesterday.  Rachel was with her dad so it was a perfect time to do it.  We asked Austin one last time how he felt about it.  He said he wanted to but he didn’t want to make Rachel upset.  We had to laugh at him because he tries to pretend to hate her but he worries about her so much.  When we told him that she would be happy about it he was off for the move.

Austin had a friend over that helped him move stuff around.  Of course, they are not as efficient as, well, me. So this morning I did the finishing touches.  I got the little kids room arranged so they have a block of floor space to play.  I got the last of Austin’s things to his room.  I got all the posters, pictures, medals, etc up in the little kids rooms.  I got the last of Rachel’s stuff out of the living room. 

I was just about done when Rachel got home.  I wish you could have seen the big beautiful grin that she had on her face.  She threw her arms up and started jumping up and down.  She helped me finish it up.

Austin’s room isn’t quite done yet.  He pretended to jokingly ask if I would help him like I was the little kids.  I told him that he was a big boy and could do the room just fine.  He was taller and more creative than the little kids.  He said, “Good point,”  and headed down the hall.  But I think tomorrow night I’ll go give him a hand on the final touches. 

So now I’m happy, the teens have their own rooms & are happy, and the little kids are sharing a room (once again) & are happy, and Kevin’s happy cuz we are.  Why didn’t we think of this before?