I got up before dawn today to prepare for the arrival of the carpenter that will be replacing our old drafty windows with modern ones. Of course, that alone would not normally get me out of bed at three a.m. - I fell asleep at 7 p.m. yesterday, so I happened to be feeling well-rested when Michelle woke me up.
June has been sleeping better lately (thankls mainly to an allergy medication that knocks her out completely, but that's another story), but Michelle is beginning to have issues of her own. Aside from night terrors, Michelle has pretty much always been a good sleeper and she shuns co-sleeping, lullabies, and the other tools we use to coax June to sleep. This is normally great, but when Michelle has trouble sleeping it leaves us at a loss. About six weeks ago, she started insisting on sleeping in the wicker toy chest in her room. It's too small for her to be able to stretch out her legs, but the stubborn child persisted for nearly two weeks before starting to lie on a makeshift couch we had created out of an old crib mattress and some pillows in a corner of her room.
Unfortunately, a cat was accidentally locked into Michelle's room for an entire day last week and used this mattress as a toilet. I created a sort of fort in the built-in closet in Michelle's room after that, hoping she might be content sleeping there, but she actually opted for her bed for a couple of nights. Then, this morning, she decided she didn't want to sleep there either. I was able to offer her the option of sleeping in June's crib in the master bedroom (June herself is sleeping on a mattress n her own room), but I don't know if Michelle will be content in the crib for very long, big girl that she is now.
Tonight Michelle will be sleeping at my MIL's because of the construction, so maybe I'll come up with some ideas for the complete makeover our house needs, inside and out, in the meantime. Now that June is sleeping better, I am considering letting her and Michelle share a room. The biggest challenge will be our living room, which has doors/windows on three sides. We have lots of furinture to choose from, but none of it matches. Maybe I should just put of redesigning the living room until I have a job. Any ideas from you all on furinishing the children's rooom/s would be appreciated, though!
I'll leave you with a picture of a visitor I disturbed from perching on our roof yesterday. I think I caught him spying on the jackdaws that nest in the chimney in our garage.