"I'll love you Forever, I'll like you for always, as long as I'm living my baby you'll be."

What a night! I have a hard time remembering sometimes why I want Benson and Grant to share a room. It's not that we don't have enough room; I guess it's because I never got the experience of sharing a room when I was growing up and wish I could have - though of course not with my brothers. I think there are many valuable lessons that can be taught to children from sharing a room. Well Saturday I was prepared to make the transition. Grant for the first two months was sleeping in our room. I am always nervous about helping my children develop bad habits so I thought it was time we move Gran to the crib. He is not sleeping through the night yet but will do 4 to 5 hour stretches. So we moved the mattress in the crib to the highest level, washed the sheets and had Benson help as we explained this is now Grants bed. We have a toddler bed that Benson would sleep in occasionally when I felt like I could handle a little sleep loss. He'll stay in bed when you put him down but he always wakes up in the middle of the night and comes in our bed. I figured, what child doesn't go in their parents bed in the middle of the night? I could handle this. So we got the beds already. We put up some vinyl lettering of their names that Angela had brought when she came last month. So I thought PERFECT! This will help Benson again understand he will now be sharing a room with Grant.

Thanks Angela.

As a side note, Benson has done really good with Grant. He has not acted jealous at all and is very good at being soft. Anyway, the first night went pretty smooth. We laid Benson and Grant down for bed at the same time and they both fell asleep. I was excited. Then of course around 1 a.m. Benson comes in our room. An hour later Grant wakes up for his first feeding. Because the next day was Sunday I didn't try putting them back in their beds. Well last night wasn't quite as easy. The nice thing about a crib is you can contain them. Benson was really tired because he didn't get a nap and so it took a minute to convince him to stay in bed. Most children take their blanket to bed or a stuffed animal. Well he was insistent he take his tractor, trailor, and truck to bed with him. He carefullly laid them in a row on his pillow right in front of his face. We again laid Grant down at the same time and they fell asleep. It wasn't two hours later that Benson came in our room. He quickly fell asleep again but only until Grant woke up to eat. So again all 4 of us were in one bed. No big deal as long I could still sleep. Well Benson was tossing and turning, flapping his arms, jabbing Josh in the ribs, tossing his sippy cup on the bed, playing with his tractor, truck, and trailor, for two hours. Neither of us wanted to even try putting him back in his bed because we knew that would be a disaster. By 4 a.m. I couldn't take it anymore. I threw his sippy cup across the room, then of course he started crying. My patience was gone. I took him in his room, took away the toys, (which was a mistake even letting him take them to bed in the first place) and held him in the rocking chair while he was whaling and fighting so hard to get down, saying, "I want my sippy! I want my trailor!" One thing I have learned as a parent is if you are going to take a opportunity to teach your child you need to be steadfast and immovable. I started this battle with him and could not give in otherwise he would win and all the time trying would be wasted. So I struggled to hold him and rock him until he calmed down (an hour later) because I didn't want him to go to bed upset and thinking I was upset. Finally, when the crying stopped and he sat there letting me hold him the book popped into my head, "I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, as long as I'm living my baby you'll be. As tired as I was, remembering that story made me grateful for this nights' experience. I won't always get to stay up all night with my children or rock them to sleep. When he finally went to sleep I didn't want to leave his side even though it was 5:30. What was the point in even trying to go back to bed? The reason he didn't go to sleep in our bed in the first place was because he was so excited to be with us, in our bed, in the middle of the night. When I thought I was using this as a teaching moment for Benson, the Lord was really using it to teach me.

Benson is such a good helper. He cleans up his toys when I ask him, he'll throw his and Grants diapers away, he helps set the table and always puts his dish in the sink. He says please and thanks, and excuse me and sorry. We are stilll working on sharing, but he is so smart and kind. If I ask him to get something he will get it for me. I am so grateful Heavenly Father has entrusted me to help raise his spirit children. I can't think of anything I enjoy more than being a mom.