sibiling upside and downside

the girls have been sharing a room for about six months now and all in all it's gone really well. a friend asked the other day what it was like for both of them to sleep in the same room. my reply went something like this, "When they're sleeping well, it's great! When they aren't sleeping well, it stinks." and that pretty much sums it up.

we've had some recent developments though that are both heartwarming and incredibly trying. they both seem to be sleeping well at the moment (fingers crossed, no jinxing) and that is fabulous. they wake up at a decent hour each morning, both at about the same time, and we hear them giggling and talking and playing with each other for quite a while before they want to come out. it's beyond cute-- one of those golden moments of raising small children. but all this fun proves to be a little too much at bedtime. the normal routine is that sylvi nurses and then is put in her crib by me each night, at which time she passes out like a log-- dead asleep! then isa finishes her bath and gets her pjs on, reads a story with daddy, and we send her to bed as well. on a normal night, she passes out quickly without incident-- except several times in the last week or so, she has crawled down out of bed, turned on every light in the room, and proceeds to intentionally wake up her sister. to be fair, she is not doing it to be mean. actually quite the opposite. she wants to play! she gives sylvi stuffed animals, talks to her, makes her laugh, etc. while this might seem really cute on one hand, on the other hand it is not so cute at all. it usually ends in one upset toddler who would rather play with her sister than get back in bed and one overtired baby who can't figure out why the sudden party has ended and it's time for sleep again. oy.

sigh. there you have it. we will remind them on this one day when they are in college or maybe on prom night, while we tell every other amusing and embarrassing anecdote we can remember.