A Good Nap

Today we planned to have a playdate with some friends at our neighborhood playground.  However, we are also having wood floors installed and things never go as planned, so we ran into some bumps and had to stick around the house for a while.  Therefore we missed the playground playdate with Margot's little friends.  Her friends still played and then they headed back to Brantley's house for more playing and pizza.  Luckily we were able to sneak away and  join them for a few minutes.

Margot was too busy playing to stop and eat, but thankfully Mrs. Amanda packed her a goody bag to take home.  Margot insisted she eat her pizza when we got out of the car instead of napping.  So she sat down at the table to eat, with all the banging and scraping going on upstairs with our floors being installed and our tile being ripped out right above her head.  I was in the kitchen cleaning up when one of the guys installing the floor asked "How is she sleeping through all this noise?"  And sure enough when I looked over she was out.

It must be so nice to be two and just conk out anywhere.

What he says....my new favorite saying

On Monday the kids and I headed back to the ENT to see Dr. H.  We love Dr. H as I mentioned below.  He is "a funny guy" as Meredith would put it.  Anyway when it came to Noah's turn to get in the big chair to have his ears checked out, he jumped right in and sat as still as can be, which is saying a lot for my Noah man who constantly has ants in his pants.  When he was done he told Noah "You can hop down, but you and momma have to come back in, in two weeks to let me see those ears again, okey dokey?"

And Noah looked right up at him with his biggest grin and said "OKIE OKIE!"

To which Dr. H said "Sounds good okey dokey!"

And Noah giggled and again said "OKIE OKIE!"

It's now his new favorite saying and I have to admit, mine too!

Why pregnancy and childbirth are worth it!

I  have to be honest when I say I HATE being pregnant.  Maybe it's the intense swelling that comes at the end of my pregnancy or the 40+ lbs I manage to gain even when working out.  Or the fact that none of my clothes fit or that I feel like a whale most of the time.  I hear the whole you are so cute pregnant, but I don't feel it....at all!  I don't think I have that glow about me.  Don't get me wrong I LOVE the end result, I just hate the road there.  And I know I am not alone, however there are also many women who would strongly disagree with me, like my mother, she always says that she loved being pregnant.  That's fine...it's just not for me.

Then their is the whole childbirth thing.  That isn't on my top ten list either.  I mean is it a miracle?  Certainly.  But lets face it, there is nothing glamorous about marching to an OR, having an anesthesiologist put a needle in your back and then a nurse put a patch on your leg to ground you, in preparation for a doctor to come in and cut you open, to pull a screaming baby out.  To me, it's not really amazing, it's just plain frightening...but again necessary.

So why I decided to do this fun thing called pregnancy and childbirth a THIRD time is beyond me....oh I kid!  I know exactly why I did it.....because there is nothing in the world like watching your 4 year old turn down sleeping in her own pink princess tent....

because her baby brother asked her to "peez seep wit me ta-ta"

And so she did.  She climbed right out of her own tent, with her pink pillow and blankie in tow and climbed right in to her baby brother's tent with him.  Then surprisingly they snuggled up and went right to sleep.  That is why I decided to go through pregnancy and childbirth a third time.  Because there is something so very special about watching your children love one another.  I hope it continues for the rest of their lives and I hope they make room in the tent for the caboose soon.

My sweet boy!

When you have an older sister and a younger one on the way...it just happens!

So it went down like this...

I know a few of you are looking at our funky hair pictures saying......"Meredith has on a dress.....she has on short sleeves....what happened to only wearing long sleeves and the no dresses stance thing you got going on?" In fact I even got a few comments about it.

Well let me just say. One that is not a dress, it is a "shirt dress" and Two it wasn't easy to get it on her.

Yes, we named it a shirt dress, because while it is long enough to be a short dress, it comes with some leggings and technically isn't a "dress" and I will never call it that for fear of her turning her nose up and never looking at it again, much less wearing it. Hence my 2 year old said...
"momma is dat a dress?"

"No, it comes with pants see?"

"Is dat a shirt dress?"

"Exactly and that my girl is the best of both worlds."

Yesterday when it was time to pull my hair out get dressed, I pulled out her new outfit along with another "shirt dress"/legging set. I gave my daughter two "spring" options. I won't lie, it was hard. But I am the mother right? I mandate the dress code and I buy the clothes. In this little battle, she begged for the pink long sleeve shirt with yellow on the inside, oh yes my girl knows her wardrobe. "But mom" she wanted it "puuhhh-lease" ----the same shirt we have worn basically every other day this winter from gap. But I held my guns and didn't give in. She whined like there was no tomorrow and in the end, I won.

She put on her new outfit and she wore it all day, until we spilled some water on it at Mimi's house and that is when the tantrum started to rear it's ugly head. But Mimi saved the day by throwing her pants in the dryer and she went pantless for an hour during which we took our photos yesterday.

So my little creature of habit informed me yesterday that today she was going to wear her pink shirt and jean combo. I told her nope, she was sleeping at Mimi's and I packed her another "shirt dress "and legging set and that is when she almost lost it.....I mean the torture of having to wear new clothes. But she kept her cool and then looked me in the eye and informed me that she was NOT wearing the new outfit, she was wearing her blue shirt dress again. I gave her a kiss goodbye and left her with her Mimi. Her Mimi washed it for her, which was a good thing because the jeans and pink shirt were not in the suitcase, although she did sneak that damn pink turtleneck.

I will continue to pick my battles, I think that is a very important thing to do in parenthood. However I will not have my daughter die of heat stroke from wearing winter clothing in South Mississippi during the season called spring, that is really 2 tiny steps from summer.

Because sometimes on a Wednesday you just have to let your hair down...

Today Meredith and I played dress up with some of Mimi's Halloween wigs! We were the Doodlebops....not really, but it sounded good to Meredith. We wore these most of the afternoon and then road through the neighborhood in Poppa's golf cart with them.....we got a few curious stares.
Like Mother, like daughter......seriously my mom used to do stuff like this with me and my sister.

Mom I am beautiful!

Is it not super hilarious from the back?

Strike a pose!

She is as sassy as she looks....I promise!

What she says.....breathing

Big Yawn on the way home from playing at her friend Grace's house

"Bug you must be so tired, that was a big yawn"

"No momma, I not tired, I just breathing"

"Oh....gotcha"

An ongoing battle - what she says

"Meredith, did you see what Marion was wearing today?"

She ignores me, while looking straight at me like I'm nuts....seriously

"Meredith, did you see what Marion had on today at the zoo?"

"A dress!"

"She did, didn't she look beautiful"

"uh-huh"

"Marion had on the most beautiful dress"

"And I had on the most beautiful shirt momma!"

At least I try! I really thought I had a few more years before she began protesting against dresses, I mean her beloved princess Aurora wears them. But nope not her, she will only put them on for church (because she thinks she has no choice) and if I bribe her (and most of the time that doesn't work either). Unfortunately for me all the other little girls in her class wear shorts and pants to school, so telling her she that she has to wear a dress to school doesn't really work. All those smocked dresses just hanging in the closet.....sigh!

Up and down pants

Do you know what those are? I bet you don't. When Josh's sister visited us this summer, she told us a few stories from his childhood. Apparently Josh wore up or down pants when he was younger. Up pants were shorts and down pants were pants. For a long time he only wanted to wear down pants.

Well like father, like daughter. Meredith is going through a phase that is about to kill me. She refuses to wear short sleeve shirts. The weather is starting to get really nice and she will not put on a short sleeve shirt. I could force her, but I have to think to myself is it really worth it. The tears, the screaming, the tantrums, the heartbreak of an almost 3 year old......no it is totally not worth it. But that doesn't mean I don't try.

I normally give her two options in the morning. This worked for a while. Now she will veto both options because she "needs long sleeves momma!" It doesn't matter that it is 80 degrees outside, she "needs long sleeves momma!" It doesn't matter if we are going somewhere and I have a really cute outfit all picked out and is appropriate for the weather because she "needs long sleeves momma!"

Yes, it is killing me, but like I said.....like father, like daughter. I am betting she will look really funny this summer.....oh yes, I think this long sleeve saga will continue until then. I am just hoping to lose the favored pink turtleneck by then.

Friday the 13th crazy

Last night before Meredith went to bed she asked to sleep with me because her ears hurt. I knew for a fact she had an ear infection. Her normal m.o. for faking an illness is "my teeth are coming out." About a year ago, she was very crabby and restless while cutting her molars and she over-heard me tell Josh that I knew she wasn't feeling well because her "teeth were coming out....all 4 at once." Since then she has used that line daily when she didn't want to do something or didn't want to go to school or wanted her pacifier outside of her bed or wanted candy to eat instead of lunch and you get the point.

Anyway when she told me her ears hurt and not that her teeth were coming out, I knew the child really was not feeling well at all. So first thing this morning, I removed her foot from my rib cage and then called the pediatrician. At 8am. Yes, that time is very important. I called first thing and told them my daughter had an ear infection. They fit me in at 6:40pm. I am not kidding. At least they didn't make me wait until Saturday or even Monday, they have been known to do that. I was a little perturbed they couldn't see me sooner, but my favorite doctor was working the after hours clinic so I didn't complain too much.

We went and saw our doctor and sure enough she confirmed that Meredith indeed had a double ear infection. She was thinking it may have been a residual infection from last month. Great! So she called in some antibiotics and numbing drops to the pharmacy, checked out my Noah real quick just to make sure his ears were clear and then sent us on our way with two lollipops!

We got to Target to fetch the prescription and Motrin and then headed to the checkout line. While we were in line Josh told me to turn around and grab Meredith who was standing right behind me in the middle of the aisle. I wasn't sure why he had a look of panic on his face, she was only 3 feet behind me. Target was busy though, very busy, lines were 10 deep, so I turned to tell her to stay by me and then I noticed why he had that look on his face.

Meredith was dancing in the middle of the main aisle with her pants and panties around her ankles singing......"See my heiny cakes....you can see my heiny cakes....heiny cakes....heiny cakes....heiny cakes!"

I ran over and started pulling her panties and pants back up and telling her that she couldn't show everyone in Target her heiny cakes. "Why momma?"......"Because you just can't baby"....."But I want to momma"....."later, not tonight!.....must be those ears making you do this"......"okay momma, later."

With that we pulled up the pants, checked out and headed to the car. I am assuming her ears are so clogged that her brain is not functioning normally, that or she is channeling her inner stripper. This was a first, I was shocked. Her audience at Target had a quick chuckle and thought it was cute.

Melting my heart....what she says

"Momma come lay with me"

"Baby I have to go clean up, you go to sleep now"

"But Momma I need some lovin'.....just a little"

"Move over love!"

*****

"Momma....when I grow up, I'm gonna be Peter Pan.....okay!"

*****

"Momma, you wanna come to my birthday party last week?"

"Sure I do!"

"Great!"

*****

"Oh Noah man you are such a ham!"

"No Momma.....Noah's a boy!"

*****

"Momma, is Peter Pan a boy?"

"He sure is"

"Well one day when he grows up, he gonna be a girl"

Trying to grow up too fast - what she says

"Where do you guys want to go to lunch today"

Mimi says..."I don't care"

"Well if you don't pick we will wind up at McDonald's"

"MOM I wanna go to Fox's and have pizza"

"Okay then....Fox's good for you mom"

Mimi says... "What about Oscar's Meredith"

"Oscar THE GROUCH?"

Mimi says... "No Oscar's the mexican....you can get a chicken enchilada"

"I no want a chicken empalada....I want Fox's....I want pizza"

"Mom do you mind Fox's?"

Mimi says... "No that's fine"

"Meredith are you sure you don't want Oscars?"

"No, I want Fox's.....I no matter.....I no matter mom"

"It doesn't matter baby?"

"Yeah....I no matter"

"So do you want a taco at Oscars?"

"No mom....I WANT Fox's....I no matter"

Her first crush

"Momma....I LOVE Peter!"

"You do!"

"Yes, he is my friend boy!"

Every girl loves Peter Pan once upon a time!

When you are a mother, sometimes you eat your words

One of the few things I have learned about motherhood is to never say never when it comes to your children. If you do....you WILL inevitably eat your words. I don't make statements like... "my children will never....", "I will never do ..... for my children", or any other sentence with the words children and never anymore. Yes I have eaten my words....probably more than once, but last night I ate them big time!

When I was pregnant with Meredith we didn't think we were going to find out the sex so I did a really generic nursery (yellows and greens). I know not very creative or chic like this one, but cute. I also did that nursery on a budget, a resident's budget if you will. My mom bought the crib, the changing table was $25 from a baby store that was on clearance and the dresser was a built in so all Josh and I did was buy the bedding, the rug and the chair. I know, we did spend some money, but no where near what I did with Noah's nursery and Meredith's big girl room.

When my baby turned 17 months she moved into her big girl bed. She has always loved it, never gotten out of it, still doesn't get out of it and I would say transitioned beautifully from day one. So when we bought her "big girl" furniture I went all out and went all out for her bedding too. I had custom bedding, drapes, a shower curtain and window seat made. I spent a small fortune....now I realize this was not the wisest thing to do. However I chose a pattern that wasn't too babyish and could grow with her. That way I wouldn't have to change it again until she was like 10. I am laughing at myself as I type this.

Yes I even did the bathroom to match....a glutton for punishment.

When we discussed the possibility of moving I told Meredith if we moved she could have a pink room. Did I mention my child loves pink? Well she didn't quite get that we aren't moving and so the room stays purple idea. All she heard was PINK ROOM GET! So I told her for her birthday I would make her room pink and make it a princess room. This really made her happy. She has been talking about it for weeks. "Mommy I'm getting a pink princess room?"

Like all 3 year olds she has been brainwashed by Disney and now lives, breathes and eats all things pink, princesses and sparkly. It really is overkill. I extremely dislike Disney. UGH. So when I said Meredith could have a pink princess room I was thinking of this....of course the walls would be pink instead of green, but you get the idea.....

Because no way was my child getting a cartoonish type of bed spread with Disney princesses. I hate those. Don't get me wrong they work fine if you like them, but me.... I have a strange aversion to them and that is where eating my words came in. When I was picking out the fabric for her big girl bedding and she was too little to have an opinion I said...."My child will NEVER have a Disney princess bed spread." Yep, that is what I pretty much said, and for Noah you can insert....batman....spiderman....cars...etc. I don't mind the cute things with cars/trucks on them or fairies/crowns, but the cartoonish ones with the actual characters just make me want to break out in hives.

So yesterday I took my two tikes to Target to get a $16 dry erase calendar. I decided to browse the kids bedding to see if they sold canopies to put in the princess room I dreamed of. We started off by the bathroom stuff and ran into the princess shower curtain, towels, rugs, toothbrush holder and all the other over priced crap. My daughter went nuts.

"OH MY GOSH MOMMA.....LOOK AT DA PRINCESSES! It's for my room?!?!?"

And with that she started shoving it in the basket. So I obliged. I hadn't originally planned on redoing her custom bathroom, but what the hell. I had sold a lot of stationery this month and it was for her birthday.

Then we headed to the bedding aisle to see about the canopy and she saw this.....

Holy mother of God, she had just hit the princess jackpot. I have never seen a 2 year old so happy. Her whole little body lit up and started shaking with excitement and that was it. She was on a princess high that even I couldn't bring down when I refused to let her put it in the basket. She grabbed the twin comforter and cradled it to her body while shrieking in delight and started heading to the check out line. I priced it $32.99. Much cheaper than the pottery barn one I had my heart set on, but this was the one she loved. I thought about letting her getting for .02 seconds and then I told her no. I grabbed the matching sheet set off the shelf and told her she could get that instead. She didn't get discouraged or upset, she simply told me....."No momma, I get dis one for my pink room and my pink bed. I get dis one. I LOVE dis one."

I knew I was now competing with the damn princesses. Damn Aurora in all her pink glory....go ahead and brainwash my kid into thinking she needs all this pink stuff.....her room is a beautiful shade of purple....Why hasn't Disney made a purple princess yet?

So I told her..."Meredith we aren't getting that, it is ugly. Momma picked out a different princess one for you. We will get the sheets and paint your room pink and get the stuff for your bathroom, but we are putting that back." Her heart literally broke right there on the aisle in Target. And I thought to myself, let the girl get what she wants this is her room not yours. And so I did. I ate my words. My daughter has a princess bed. And I am okay with it. Although I am still in love with this one from pottery barn.

When we got home from school today her room was all finished. The first thing she did was run up the stairs to see it. She was in awe. It was the most beautiful things she had truly ever laid eyes on in her mind. She looked at me and said...."See momma, it's not ugly....it's beautiful!"

I have learned not to call anything she loves ugly ever again. And now her room and bathroom look like this. In two weeks, I will paint he damn room pink and I will lay in bed every night wanting to order that damn pottery barn bedding, but I won't. This is her dream room, not mine.

Tickled pink....what she says

"mom can you make me pink?"

"what?"

"I wanna be pink mom"

"why?"

"because I no want to be dis color no more, I wanna be pink"

"what color are you?"

"ummm dis color.....ummm white.....but I want to be pink"

"bug I can't make you pink, you just have to be this color and it is really close to pink."

"NO IT'S NOT!" Pinkalicious is pink....I wanna be pink....make me pink mom please"

DAMN you Pinkalicious! Damn you!

Those were pink cupcakes we made in an honest effort to turn her pink....it didn't work. She was crushed. DAMN you again Pinkalicious. As a compromise I am going to paint her room pink and redo it for her birthday....she is thrilled....I kid you not!

I told Josh since Meredith is outgrowing her clothes and will inevitably need new spring & summer clothes (because spring is summer here), I am making sure they are all pink. Everything will be pink. In fact I may just buy 7 of the same outfits in pink and wash and rotate. I am sick of the battle of only wearing pink. We have two pairs of pink sweat pants and if they are clean you can bet that is what we are wearing and if I don't buy pink summer clothes she will without a doubt throw massive fits to wear her pink sweatpants in the summer. And those pants are paried with one of her 3 pink shirts, her pink shoes, pink socks if we can find them and her pink snow hat if I let. Yes, the child really wants to be pink....damn you Pinkalicious!

An age requirement

There are lots of things that require being a certain age to be able to do them in this house. They aren't necessarily bad things, but things that my kids will have to be a certain age to do. Like dating, driving, going out, curfews and so on. And those are a long way off and thankfully Josh and I have time to decide at what age that will be. And then there are some things that are going to come sooner like soft drinks, gum, sleepovers at friend's houses and son on. I never really thought about how I would be one of the people who decided when these things would happen.

Like gum, I made a rule one day because I was chewing gum and Meredith wanted some. Well at two I wasn't going to give her gum. I was fully aware that the gum would wind up in her hair, on her clothes and probably all over my house. So I made up a "rule" one day in the quick. You have to be 5 to chew gum. Then the other rules just followed suit. Like coke, "mom can I have some coke?" Nope you have to be 5 to drink coke.

Then there are rules that are set that I can't change. Like receiving communion at church. She watches each week very inquisitively. Each week she asks us what it is? What do we do with it? Why can't she have some? One day it was....

"Mom I want to eat that too."

I explained to her that you had to make your first communion before you could have communion. And that was when you were in second grade. And that communion was really Jesus and you had to be ready to receive Jesus. She looked at me like I was crazy. Clearly Jesus was the man on the altar talking, we were not eating him, we were eating "bread." Well this explanation didn't really fly, it confused her. She didn't know what communion was or second grade, but she totally got it when I told her she had to be 7. The wheels in her head were spinning now, I was talking in a language she fully understood. In fact last week when we sat down in church she looked at me and said....

"momma, I'm 7 today"

"umm, no baby you are 2 remember"

"no momma today I am 7, today I gonna get da bread"

See how quick she is. She is a fast thinker and is great with numbers. Really great, in fact she often adds and subtracts without knowing what she is doing. No wonder she got this whole age thing down pat.

Well this morning she is still under the weather. We were laying in bed and I asked her if there was anything she needed. She looks so pitiful right now I would give her the world if she asked.

"Baby do you need anything?"

"Some water momma"

"Are you sure? Do you want some lemonade or (thinking really fast about what else we have) or...... coke?"

her eyes lit up and she smiled from ear to ear.....I was starting to regret that offer, what if she took me up on it and then I had a wired, sick two year old..... and then she looked at me and with the biggest grin said....
"Silly momma you have to be 5 to have coke....I'm only 2!"

Oh how I love my little Meredith. She is such a smart cookie. And so we are laying in bed...I am drinking a coke and my two year old is happily drinking water.

First day on the job

On the weekends, Josh frequently goes into the hospital to round, even when he isn't on call. Talk about a full time job. This weekend, he had no patients in the ICU and none that had any icky germs that he knew of to spread onto my tike, so she went with him to round. It was her first day at "wurk". She couldn't wait to go to work with her daddy, she was so excited and I think he was extremely proud as well. She even brought her doctor kit along with her. Here she is showing off her scrubs.

And this is so no one mistakes her as a nurse, she was very adamant about being Dr. Meredith. My baby girl is getting so big! I want to just hold her and rock her and keep her a baby for a few more years. She truly is a first child....so ambitious, so ready to go, so ready to soar.

A day in the life.....

Tonight Josh was on the phone with a long time friend and Meredith is in bed reading.

"Hello....Hey Jon Shaw! What's going on?"


through the baby monitor
"jibber....jabber.....jibber jabber...."


"I've been good and you?"


through the baby monitor
"HEY DAD....ARE YOU TALKING TO ME? ARE YOU TALKING TO ME, DAD?"


"Hey yeah.....yadayadayada...."


through the baby monitor
"BECAUSE IF YOU ARE TALKING TO ME DAD....I CAN'T HEAR YOU!"


###


Noah has taken to carrying around his sister's baby doll while hugging it tightly and laying his head on the baby's shoulder while patting her back saying...."Awwwwe!"


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Because clearly Tupperware drawers were meant to be emptied and sat in by little boys!

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And if you want to keep all of your fingers and sanity you WILL NOT throw away a finished cup of yo baby yogurt when the baby wants more. This will result in high pitched, shrilling screams that will leave your head spinning and cause years of therapy for both of you.


###

It doesn't matter if you have a million things that have to be done....naps are purely negotiable.

What she says...from the bathroom......this one is for you Tim

"Mommy, Mommy I gotta go poop!"

"Okay bug go, hurry!"

"I gotta poop, I gotta poop" running to the bathroom

"Mommy come see my poops, hurry!"

"Mommy, come see dare is A LOT OF POOPS"

"Mommy!! dare is a baby poop, a mommy poop, a daddy poop, a bawudda poop...........dare's a whole family poop!"

"Mommy, dare's a whole family poop, COME SEE!"

And go see I did, and yes there was a whole little family of poops. She was so proud of that family and I immediately thought of her paran. I now know where he got the saying "dropping the kids off at the pool!" I wonder if she does this at school? What do you think?

Frustrated......

My two year old monster is back. Today she has thrown tantrum after tantrum for no good reason. Well her other two year old molar is halfway out so I am assuming it has something to do with her crabbiness, but come on. If you look at her wrong she gets a sour look and a loud whiny scratching your nails on a chalkboard type of whine. If you put the sippy cup lid on or if you don't put it on, if you cut the apple or you leave it hole, if you look at her or if you look over her, either way it is tantrum time. It is driving me insane. Today at lunch she threw a tantrum because I wouldn't let her take of her clothes in the restroom. She wanted to take them off because they were wet from my hands lifting her to wash her hands...... give me a freaking break!

I am seriously about to lose my mind. And it isn't just me she is ornery with, her dad, her brother and her Mimi have elicited the exact same reactions as well. Today my mom walked in the our house and she started immediately, not sure why. I just figure it must be so hard to be two.

And the whole time she was whining this morning all she whined for was her paci. Her pacifier that a few weeks ago was only needed for naps and nightime and she was so okay with that. Now she wants and sneaks the damn thing all day long.

I know we have switched to a big girl bed with absolutely no problem, potty training was a breeze, we weaned from the boob to a bottle in three days, we took the bottle away in three days (of course she has never drank milk again), she went from sleeping downstairs in the room next to ours to upstairs all the way across the house by herself with no problem, at she gets in her bed at night and for naps on her own sometimes requesting to go to bed or to take a nap.............so why is this pacifier so damn hard to get rid of.

I know the paicifier is just a way she uses to sooth herself, I really do get that. I get that her mouth probably hurts, but the damn pacifier is killing me. When I see toddlers in US weekly with them in their mouths I think they look ridiculously too old for them and then I realize they are younger than my child. I have listened to others tell me it was time to take it away and thought to myself, back off, it is my child I will do it when I am ready. And I am ready, but I am scared to death to do this. Maybe because it will screw up her nap routine or her bedtime routine and with one child not sleeping very well, I am scared I will have two not sleeping and that will be way too much to handle at once.

I have heard the suggestion of cutting it until it was gone, well that resulted in a puzzled look and a request to "go get a new one mom!" Followed by a full blown tantrum that I just couldn't deal with. The real problem is I can cut the damn expensive pacifiers all I want, but Noah still has his and she thinks nothing of just taking it from him. So I guess the answer is to just take it away from both, but do I have too!?!?!

Noah likes his even more than Meredith likes hers. What the hell am I going to do? We leave for Disney in less than a month. We will all be sleeping (hopefully sleeping) in the same room, it would be stupid to try to do this now right? When should I do it? Does anyone have any advice for this? I will go back to beating my head against the wall now, I feel like I have been doing that all week! The bottom line is whether Meredith is old enough or ready to get rid of it yet, secretly I am not. I know with every change I enforce upon them, comes with their own change in their behavior. I have to take the good with the bad and really I hate change it is no wonder my kids do to. Any advice appreciated.