Upstairs Neighbors

The day after we got back from our beach vacation, as if we didn’t have anything else to do, we did some rearranging in the house. We figured it was about time to move Rory upstairs; we always said he wouldn’t be down the hall from us forever. And I realized that if we didn’t do it on that particular day, we wouldn’t have another good time to do it before school starts again. This summer has been so jam-packed.

However, instead of swapping two rooms, we had to swap three. Riley decided he really wanted to take over “Daddy’s room” (the office/guest room), and Rory was fine with moving into Riley’s room. So that’s what we did.

In addition to his new room, Riley got a new bed. Or rather, two beds. We took a set of beds from Grammy and Bop’s house that QP and AD#1 used to sleep on when they were little, figuring we would maybe use them at some point. Well, when we told Riley he could have TWO beds in his new room, he jumped on that. We set the beds up in the shape of a “L,” and he can actually sleep on either one.

It took all day, but we finally got everything situated enough for them to sleep in their new rooms that Sunday night. They were so excited to be right next to each other.

I worried a bit about how they would do overnight in their new digs, but aside from Riley coming downstairs once complaining of a monster (a.k.a. his blue chair that Kenny had wedged between an extra mattress and the ceiling to keep morning light out), both of them slept great.

 

The next day they helped out by vacuuming their new rooms. Rory especially loved all of his new space, and Riley especially loved his new Lego “cave” under his bed. They both ended up very satisfied with their set-ups, which made me happy.

 

We still haven’t switched around any of the closets, but we’ll get to that eventually. However, Rory did discover the bin of colorful blocks in the big closet in his new room, and he has been loving playing with them. He calls them “the beautiful blocks” and asks to get them out just about every day. He drives his trucks through them, he digs them, and he lays in them. Too funny.

 

Riley’s room still needs some work (hanging pictures on the walls, moving the extra mattress and the giant TV out, emptying the closets, etc.), but Rory’s is pretty much done.

The only thing left in Rory’s old room was the rug, so I got to work putting my original guestroom back together. It was a little bittersweet dismantling the room Rory spent his first three years in, but I love having my guestroom back. I missed seeing those paintings that Nopsi did for me.

The boys have done absolutely great in their new rooms thus far. They play upstairs a lot: Riley with his Legos, and Rory with his beautiful blocks. Most nights we read together in Riley’s room, which is even easier now that there’s so much bed space, but sometimes we split up, me usually taking Rory and Kenny taking Riley. However, Rory has asked more than once if he can sleep in Riley’s other bed. We’ve managed to avoid having to do so, but it could become a special treat every now and then on the weekends. They don’t always get along perfectly, but they do love being together.

 

Now we’ll just have to hope that they don’t start sneaking into each other’s rooms at night. But then again, that would be really sweet.