Ch . . Ch . . Changes

2008 has started off with one of my children more resistant to change than ever (Eli) and one child who is either incredibly accident prone or on a suicide mission (Georgia). This keeps my life interesting.

When Eli was 2 1/2, we moved him from his crib to a twin bed. We didn’t want it up very high, so we didn’t put it on a frame. We just put the box springs and mattress on the floor. It has been like that for three years. Every time I had mentioned putting his bed on a frame so it was up a little higher, Eli flipped the f*ck out! Until this weekend.

On Saturday, Eli said he was wondering what it would be like to have his bed up high like Jonathan’s (a friend of his). Woo hoo! I thought I would take this opportunity and run with it. I know Eli does not deal with change well. I moved his bedroom furniture around once. Once. I learned never to do that again because he cried like I had just killed his best friend. He doesn’t like change.

This time, I thought we could put the frame together on Sunday when he was occupied. That is what Eric did. Unfortunately, he wasn’t exactly quiet about it, and Eli heard a commotion in his room. When he walked in and saw what was happening, he screamed, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!!” Oh crap.

I told him that I thought he wanted his bed up higher like Jonathan’s. He said, “WELL I DON’T! I CHANGED MY MIND!!”

I then noticed that Eric and I have different ways of dealing with this. Eric tries to explain calmly what we’re doing. This never works. Eli just screams “NO!” louder while sitting down in the middle of the floor and crying.

I started talking about how great the furniture in his bedroom would look if we moved it around. I thought if I could get him involved in a “discussion” about that, he would forget about the bed. Eric thinks I’m just torturing him. I think it works.

It’s kind of like when you got an F in 10th grade math. You tell your parents that you’re pregnant. After they get shocked and upset, you honestly tell them that you’re not. But then the F in math doesn’t seem that bad.

Or maybe I’m just twisted.

Either way, we got Eli’s “big boy” bed put together and he finally agreed to try it out for a few days. If he still doesn’t like it after that, we promised to take it down. As of day #2, he still doesn’t like it. But I’m holding out hope.

Besides, I bought him a new comforter today at Target. After he’s done hyperventilating from that change, maybe he’ll forget about the bed.