Change

A flurry of converging circumstances... including

• the girls maxing out the weight capacity of the changing table on the pack-n-play. We've been using the pack-n-play in the living room exclusively for a changing table. The bassinet is still in there, and that's where we store everything: diapers, wipes, clothes, blankets, etc.
• the climbing on the table battles. We had a small coffee table wedged between the couch and love seat. Now that they can all pull themselves up onto the couch, they love to throw their leg over the arm of the couch to get a rise out of us. Whether we ignore them or not, they then proceed to climb onto the table. It's aggravating and frustrating to police. I need the living room to be safe enough that I can be in the kitchen cleaning up or making lunch or something without worrying about them climbing up there. I'm tired of the screaming. It does nothing. They like to taunt me.
• toys, toys, toys. We pick them up every night, but entropy wins in about 20 minutes each afternoon when we get home.
• the desire to read to our kids. We're not doing very well on this front. It feels like their attention span isn't very long, and it's hard to read to one while wrangling two kids.

So here's what we did:

• moved the homemade (read: pieced together cubes from Target) changing table downstairs. It should have a much higher weight limit.
• moved the love seat up into the girls room. (Yes, after moving a love seat upstairs together, we are still married.) We are hoping for a new routine that will include reading together before bed, without the distractions of toys, toys, toys everywhere.
• moved the coffee table out of the living room. I was hesitant to do this - I wanted to teach my girls to listen and obey. But it was a constant battle. And after talking to Catie (the girls' EI) about Julie's tantrums and inability to console herself, I think we made the right decision. She recommended removing things that we had to constantly say "no" to, to not trigger her. For us, there's a lot less yelling.

We haven't removed the pack-n-play yet. We are trying to figure out how to keep the girls out of the (open front) changing table. Ideally, we'll take the bassinet out of the pack-n-play and use it for time-outs or something.