Of Boys and Beds

Friday evening we went to the furniture store to buy a bed for Peter. It's about time. Way back when John was a tiny baby sleeping in a bassinet, we bought a Little Red Bed (LRB). It was a toddler sized bed. I think it was used because the mattress was already a bit torn in spots. Hannah loved it because it was just her size. We moved Hannah out of the crib and onto the LRB so that John could have the crib. Life was good. She slept on that bed until we moved to our condo here. By then John was ready for a real bed, and Josh was getting close to needing the crib. So we aquired some bunk beds. The LRB went into retirement. Eventually Peter came along and needed the crib and Josh was old enough for a bed. Hannah was reaching an age where she didn't want to share her room with her little brothers, so we bought her a day bed (without the trundle that fit under it) and moved her into the room that had been our office. Josh skipped the LRB and went straight to the bottom bunk of the bunk bed. A couple years later, Peter started climbing out of the crib, and we pulled out the LRB for him to sleep on. I don't know if it was because the LRB was getting old and tired, or if Peter was just harder on it than the other kids had been, but it didn't last very long after that. The metal bars that supported the mattress started to bend and sag, and after a while we decided to retire it. Since then, for about the last year or so, Peter has been sleeping on the mattress on the floor. Why did we wait so long to get him a bed? Well, the main reason is that the room isn't very big. The bunk bed kind of dominates the room, and I thought it would be too crowded to have another twin sized bed in there. I didn't want another toddler bed because Peter would outgrow it soon, and we'd need to get a twin size bed eventually.

So why did we buy him a bed now? Well, for several reasons. For one thing, the mattress is being held together by duct tape and the tape is loosing the battle. Another reason is that Lindy is coming to visit next week with her husband and baby. Usually when people come to visit they either sleep on Hannah's bed (if it's just one person) or on the hide-a-bed sofa in the living room. Unfortunately, the hide-a-bed isn't very comfortable, and the living room isn't very private (Remember we have 4 kids and 4 cats). Where could we put Lindy and her husband and her baby that would be big enough for them and have privacy and quiet enough for a baby to sleep? Our answer was to get a trundle bed that will work with Hannah's bed. This way they have the privacy of a bedroom and a more comfortable bed large enough for two to sleep on it, even if it does have a crack down the middle.

So Peter gets a new bed. Yes, it is a trundle bed, but that makes it more mobile and versatile. The mattress is new. We still have his old one (currently stored under the bunk bed) for him to sleep on during my sister's visit. Yes, the boys' room is crowded with two big beds in there, but there isn't much we can do with that until we move--whenever that may be. Have I ever mentioned that I want to move? I'd love a house with four bedrooms.