Operation: Roommates

Just yesterday I was telling a friend about how I'm going to start introducing the idea of Natalie moving in with Jack's room.  Slowly, carefully, so as not to alarm her or make her resent the baby.  I figured I'd do it once she was totally comfortable with school.  That might not be until 2012, though, when Sheemee will be starting preschool!  If I'm honest with myself, I've never done anything slowly or methodically in my life.  Anyone who knows me well, knows this is true.  I dither, worry, whirl like an indecisive tornado and then Wham!  My decision is made and I plow ahead without further ado.  Even when there should be some ado.

So, I decided to set the wheels in motion to move Madam into the "big kid room."  (Which will be later today if all goes according to plan.)  I know that she doesn't want to give up her room and so does anyone who remembers the last time I tried to move her into Jack's room.  Of course, the stakes were a lot lower back in May when I was simply trying to steal her room and make it into my office/photo studio.  Now I need her out of there and this time, there are no take-backsies.  This is no secret; we've talked abstractly about how she will be moving in the fuzzy future but I try not to say why and I haven't been brave enough to say when.  Other people have even brought it up to her and she doesn't get mad per se.  She simply announces to anyone and everyone foolish enough to assume that she'll be displaced that the baby will sleep with Jack b/c as she so quaintly puts it, "I want my room in MY room.  Not Jack's."

So what's a frazzled Mommy to do? Appeal to the girl's love of stuff.  She inherited my materialistic shopaholic tendencies, woe to her future husband, and I have no problem with appealing to her base instincts for more, more, MORE just this once.  Plenty of time to teach her about frugality and the importance of reducing one's carbon footprint once she is calmly ensconced in her new quarters.

Off to Target we went this morning after dropping The Boy at school.  Little Miss is all about Disney Princesses these days and, joy of joys, there was DP crap on clearance.  She is now the proud owner of a throw rug, comforter, sheet set and wall stickers to decorate her new space.  We were barely in the front door of the house when she was practically ripping open the packaging with her teeth.  Nope, sorry, not until you are out of the little room and into the big kid room.  She dragged the bags upstairs and begged me to put the bedspread on her bed.  Silly girl, didn't we talk about how this isn't for your boring old room?  She's practically foaming at the mouth to get her bed into Jack's room.  I'm surprised that she hasn't tried moving it herself.

Do I expect this to be a magical fix and that she will move in with nary a tear?  Of course not.  She is my child and I know her mercurial moods better than anyone.  I know that she will cry, protest that she is still little as she often does when she doesn't want to accept change ("I'm still little!  See, look at my little hands!") and want to move back.  I also know that she won't want to give up her DP crap AND she knows I won't budge on the "only in the big kid room" rule b/c once a rule has been discussed, I never budge.  So, she has her new stuff.  I even let her pick where she wants her bed (where Jack's is now, of course, but that is okay.  Why should she alone have to swallow all of the changes?)  The move might not happen tonight if I can't get Tommy Boy to move the furniture (it's KILLING me not to handle it myself!) but it is imminent.   Please say a little prayer for all of us.  We'll need all the help we can get.