Ch-ch-ch-changes

It probably wouldn't surprise you to hear that with 11 people in this house, we are maxed out on rooms. (That's including the storage room recently converted into Erika's room of her own.) So with the impending arrival of resident #12, we had to do some creative thinking to find her a bed.

The solution was a collaborative effort, and though resettling everyone will require 7 people to relocate, I think everyone will be happier in the end. My room, which was originally two rooms (for the servants, natch), is being restored to two "cozy," "adorable" bedrooms; one for Molly, and one for Declan and Ronan. (Unlike Amy, I am a big fan of room sharing. That, and we don't have enough rooms for Declan and Ronan to each have his own.)

Jonah will move into Declan and Ronan's old room when he returns from Baltimore; he'll have a bit more privacy and less convenient access to a toilet, into which he likes to flush his toys (their very own water park, perhaps?). Gretchen and Aaron will move into Jonah's old room, which is conveniently across the hall from Mom and Dad. Matty and I will move into the twins old room, which is the second largest bedroom in the house and has not one, but two closets (our current room has zero).

Needless to say, I am very excited.

Not just about the closets, though an actual doored vestibule for our clothing far surpasses a rolling rack hanging behind a curtain. In honor of both our new room and our impending arrival, we decided to buy an actual bedroom set with a king-sized bed (anticipating many mornings of all three kids piled into bed with us).

We've never had a real bed before, a real headboard and frame, or a real bedroom set of any kind. Right now one of our nightstands is from Ikea and one is from the unfinished furniture store we used to frequent. Our bed is on a metal frame. Until recently, our dresser was from the same unfinished furniture store, but we upgraded that to an actual finished dresser from an actual furniture store a couple of years ago.

Buying a bedroom set was a big step for us, and more significant than you might think. First of all, I now feel like a real grown-up, since real grown-ups have real grown-up furniture. But what's more significant is that we're taking roots, we're settling in, after 2 years. We're making that room our own.

Of course, bedroom sets can be moved...

...but moving is such a pain in the ass.