Last Night’s Checklist!


It is bittersweet, indeed. Yesterday, we took down our last child’s crib and stored it in the garage. I know that he is just a day older than he was the last time he slept in it, but still…my last baby now sleeps in a bed! I really don’t know how to feel about this. He’s recently become such an escape artist, first mastering the high climb over the crib’s railing (and the subsequent, long fall to the floor), and second, figuring out how to pry the child-proof doorknob off his bedroom door. That knob cover was our very short-lived attempt to keep him from taking a tumble down the stairs when he wandered out of his room after escaping the safety of his crib. For the last few weeks, he has inevitably ended up in our very crowded bed, alongside both of us…and his three year old brother.
Combining these two scenarios – a two year old who ends up in our bed by any means necessary, and a three year old who’s been unable to sleep separate from me since the very first day of his life – well, I decided that maybe the two situations could actually work to our benefit. This was my line of thinking: I have one child who now seems afraid and unwilling to sleep in his room by himself, and I have another child who needs me right next to him for the duration of the night (maybe any warm body would do).
Crib dismantled and stored? Check! Big, red race car bed taken apart and also put in storage (you know, the one he never slept in)? Check! Their room cleaned and organized (just because he never slept in there doesn’t mean D’Lo didn’t terrorize that bedroom)? Chiggety check! Very large mattress put down and made up (low to the ground so gravity can’t be mean to my babies)? Check and check! Big Sister, Dee Dee, offering to take the first shift laying with the boys (to ease them into the unfamiliar)? Thank you Destiny and check!…

Mommy and Daddy, laying in the middle of our own bed, spooning (and a few other things) like two teenagers fresh in love, for the entire night, for the first time in nearly four years?!

CHECK! CHECK! CHECK! aaaaaaand CHECK!

About thisnest

The Sparrows are happily married, and the parents of five children. Donna and her husband Antonio are college sweethearts who also raised his seven siblings, many with special needs, for nearly two decades. Along the way they have navigated the ups and downs of being a blended, black, white, and brown family. Donna celebrates each day of blessings and embraces her family’s “interraciality” through poetry, anecdotes, and glimpses into her beautifully chaotic life on her blog at www.ThisNest.com
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2 Responses to Last Night’s Checklist!

  1. Susan says:

    First let me start by saying, I am a faithful reader of your blogs… Now, There must have been a little spooning (and a few other things), a couple times in the last four years, how old did you say the babies were?… lol,

    Thanks so much for sharing, I look forward to what’s next!

  2. thisnest says:

    LMBO. You are funny! Clarification: Yes! Yes! Yes! (a few other things) are a MUST for a lengthy and happy marriage! The spooning, alone in our own bed for the entire night, is what has been lacking for four whole, long, exhaustive, did I mention FOUR years, lol. But, sheesh! The closet (good thing we have a big one) was getting old 😉

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