Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Queen of the Room


One of our cars is in the shop, again. It's the story of our life...I guess that's what you get for driving old cars with high miles. Anyway, that's not the point. The point is that since one car is broken that means that our entire family spends a lot of time in the same car while the other car is in the shop. It means that instead of me getting up early and leaving for work before the girls are awake, that we all eat breakfast together and we all drive to work together.

This also means that we have to wake the girls up in the morning instead of letting them sleep until whenever their bodies want to wake up. Upon doing this for a few mornings in a row, I have come to realize something. Berlin is Queen of the Room.

Two mornings now I have gone in to wake them up only to discover that Tryn is already awake. I realized that she would lay there quietly without a single peep until either Berlin wakes up or we come to get her. Berlin is not the same. There have been mornings where I know that Berlin has woken up before Tryn, and she is definitely not gracious enough to lay there and keep quiet. She is not gentle enough to wake up in peace, she wakes up ready to tell the entire world that she is up and they should be too.

Nighttime is not much different. After making sure that we tell her both, "Good night," AND, "I love you," Tryn lays there quietly. Berlin has to cry about something almost every single night before we shut the door. I feel bad for Tryn. There have been times where we decided to let Berlin fuss for awhile and when we go in there Tryn quietly says, "Berlin won't be quiet," with her hands clamped over her ears. If the girls stay up laughing and giggling Berlin is almost always the instigator.

Tryn has never challenged us as far as bedroom rules. She has been in a toddler bed for almost a year now and has not once opened her door and left her room for anything. She waits there each morning for us to come and get her. We have never even told her not to leave her room, she just doesn't. I am scared to put Berlin in a toddler bed, I think it will be a different story.

That's part of the reason I love having the girls share a room. Sure, Berlin might call the shots in there. But I also think that Tryn's gentle, calm, and obedient manner will rub off a little on her little sister. One can always hope!

5 comments:

Tonya said...

Hmmm, familiar story, different tune. These are exactly the reasons our girls stopped sharing a room YEARS before I was ready for it. It just wasn't fair to H anymore.

The Stephens said...

It is so powerful how you love both of your very different girls!

Anonymous said...

hmmm...I look forward to seeing how long they stay in the same room. My oldest actually chose to sleep in her little brother's top bunk in his room for the first 9 months in our house last year. She is very much like you describe Tryn, and my son very much the one to climb into bed with us nightly. What a great discovery - to see your kids for who they are becoming.

Nathan said...

Still have a van for you :)

Unknown said...

When did your girls start sharing a room? I'm trying to figure out how to make the transition with my two.