I mentioned in my last post that I've been needing a lot of coffee lately, but I never explained why.
It's Greg's fault.
He decided, a few nights ago, to do something we've been discussing for weeks but never actually prioritizing...
He converted Cosette's crib to a bed.
Cosette looked at it, and then walked away to play with her doll house.
I looked at it an had visions of her falling onto the hard wood floor, which is still bare because I haven't cleaned or replaced her area rug after Lucy dragged dirty diapers all over it (the rug is curled up and relegated to a dusty corner in the basement. In other words... forgotten.) And then I suggested to Greg that he run over to Babies R Us and buy a safety rail.
He wasn't surprised, having expected that request, and off he went.
By the time he got back, Juliette had discovered Cosette's new bed and gleefully demonstrated to her little sister how easy it was to get on and off and how much fun it was to jump on the mattress unencumbered (and unprotetected) by crib rails. After much coercing and silent cussing and a little bit of yelling I had convinced the girls to stop jumping on the bed and get into the bath, and we were finally sitting in Cosette's room reading. It was all ready past bedtime and I was anticipating a little struggle with Cosette as she adapted to her new independence, and I envisioned Greg sliding the bedrail between the bed and mattress and taking Juliette with him while I worked on convincing Cosette to stay in her bed.
It turns out that the bedrail does not come assembled. So Greg walked in with a box and a few tools and sat down on the floor for "some" assembly. Which seems like kind of an oxymoron. Either it requires assembly or it doesn't. I mean, it's not like we have to knit the mesh or bend the metal poles ourselves, but other then that there was no assembly that was already done. But I digress.
Greg has commented lately how Cosette is really developing a personality that is really different from Juliette. And I thing, i I had to compare the two girls, I would say that Juliette is more like her father and Cosette is more like me. Let me illustrate. Greg is sitting in Cosette's room ready to assemble the bedrail, and the girls and I are all squished into her rocker glider reading books. Greg asks "Cosette, do you want to come help me put this together?" and as Cosette replies ""Yeah" she and Juliette both jump off my lap and run over to him. He opens the box and Cosette looks at all the pieces, stands there for a minute, then comes back to me and says "I want to read a book." Juliette, however, picks up the net and a pole and promptly tries threading the pole through the pocket in the net.
You might think the divergent interests are due to age differences, but remember that Juliette, at a tender young age of four, has already lived through a major house remodel; and even when she could just barely walk she was always trying to 'help' Greg. Cosette, apparently, doesn't share such interest. You know how Juliette loves blue, and all her clothes are blue? Cosette likes pink. You know how Juliette likes dinosaur and race car and baseball pajamas? Cosette refuses to wear them because "I don't like dinosaurs!"
Maybe Cosette is my girly girl. The upside is that Cosette will wear all of those girly flowery clothes that hung abandoned in the corner of Juliette's closet.
So anyway, Cosette sits with me and reads while Juliette and Greg assemble the bedrail, then there is a few minutes of excitement over the new configuration of the bed, before I finally shush Juliette out of the room.
It takes three tries to get Cosette to stay in her bed, but she finally does and sleeps through the night without a peep. Until 5:45, when I heard the pitter patter of little feet, followed by the sound of my bedroom door opening and Cosette's soft voice "Mommy? I awake!"
The next day, Cosette woke at 5:30.
Today, she woke me at 5:15.
I really really hope this trend doesn't continue.
And that is why I was really happy when I saw a Starbucks gift card tucked, unused, in Greg's wallet. And that is why I felt completely justified taking it. It's only fair. After all, he made Cosette's bed. And since she won't lay in it, I'm the one who has to get up at the crack of dawn. I may be a new Starbucks coffee customer, but I'm becoming a regular pretty quickly.
