Bunk Beds

**This blog was just updated. I had to change the picture of the beds because apparently, in the first one I posted, you could see things that you shouldn't see. I don't want to ruin her for life or be charged with child pornography, so I had to change it. I apologize to anyone whose morning was completely ruined by a 4 year old who wears loose boxers and is fairly free in her movements.

About two years ago, we were at a friend's house and my oldest was playing in their boys' rooms. She was absolutely fascinated by their bunk beds. I'm not sure if she had ever seen bunk beds before. She ran out of that room with a new declaration every 10 minutes. "There's two beds! They are on top of each other! They use a ladder to get in bed! Two people can sleep in it!" And most importantly, "Mom, I want bunk beds!!!"

We never heard the end of it. For the last two years, she has been fixated on the fact that she doesn't have bunk beds and those boys do. She doesn't even remember the boys. Just the beds. Last summer, she was playing with her friend, Jackson, who also has bunk beds. On the way home, she asked me, "Mom, are bunk beds only for boys?" No, anyone can have bunk beds. "How come we don't have bunk beds?" Maybe we'll get you bunk beds when Reese grows out of her crib and you two can share.

Well, one chunky monkey (Rhett) later, and the two girls are sharing a room. When we moved them in together, Avery's first question was "NOW, can we have bunk beds?" No, honey, Reese is still in a crib. "When can we have bunk beds?" Maybe when Reese outgrows her crib.

About a month ago, Reese crawled...no, jumped, out of her crib. It was a traumatic experience for everyone. So she started sleeping in the twin bed with Avery. And Avery wondered, once again, why we didn't have bunk beds.

We wanted to buy them bunk beds, but we don't keep scads of money sitting around, just waiting for the opportunity to buy large pieces of furniture, so we weren't sure what to do. And considering the fact that I just got fired from the SAT gig, we don't have that big chunk of Christmas money we were hoping for. But my mom had once mentioned that she would go in halves with us on bunk beds, so we halfway started looking for some fairly inexpensive beds.

Honestly, I was only looking half-heartedly. I really just expected that we would wait until Aaron got his bonus in February. But Craigslist is my latest obsession, so I thought I'd just type in bunk beds for fun. And guess what? A brand new, white set of bunk beds from Pier I Kids was on there. New in box, never opened. For $400. Apparently, a wife bought them and fully intended to use them, but the controlling husband didn't approve and forced her to get rid of them before they ever opened them. Apparently, they do keep scads of money sitting around waiting to buy large pieces of furniture.

At any rate, it was the deal we were looking for. And Mom agreed to go halves. So now, after two years of wishing, asking, wondering and worrying, we have bunk beds. They are awesome.

You've never seen two kids more excited over furniture. They have climbed to the top 8,000 times. They have asked for help getting down 8,000 times. The ladder has been moved away so that they can't keep getting on top and then yelling "GET ME DOWN!!!" But we love them too.

You want to see the best part of the whole thing? My husband's latest invention. This guy thinks of everything. And makes it happen. Check this out. This is the portable DVD player, strapped to a board, which was placed under the top bunk, so that, when we want to send the kids to watch a movie so we can watch ours, they can come to their new bed to watch. It's removable, at my request, because I have a strict policy about TV in the bedroom. But this is just for fun. And it gave my husband much pleasure to do it.

Now everybody's happy. Thanks Mom, for making it happen. And thanks, Craigslist, for being so awesome. And thanks, lady who bought furniture without consulting her husband, for getting rid of perfectly good bunk beds at a great price. And most of all, thanks, Babe for setting them up and making it even more fun for the girls. You rock!