We're all on the edge of our seats here.

Quinn rolled off our bed on Friday and we've been suffering through a little chaos since. Madeleine's room is now Quinn's, which means it has a crib and a bunch of other randoms (including my desk and computer, a stack of framed pictures that I think are ugly, Christmas decorations that I've been too lazy to bring downstairs and books). The old spare/guest/computer room is now Madeleine's, but also holds all the other junk that didn't quite make it to the garage or basement. (What do you people in apartments do, by the way? How do you contain the shit-sprawl?)

The problem we're having with the transition is not the strewn-about contents of our home, but Madeleine's reaction to it. She's terrified in her new room. During the day it's a large, bright, south-facing, fun center. At night, it's the room of horrifically scary shadows and bumpy scritchy noises. Jim's convinced she'll get used to it, but she's not easy to distract. In fact that parenting method has never worked with her. She really gets fixated on things and is willful to boot, creating this kind of Rainman response to my nighttime soothing. (I just wrote then erased a sample conversation. It was too dull and repetitive. Rainman.) I'm having a hard time with this, because I remember being scared to death in bed all the time as a child and an inordinate amount of time as an adult. I'm still afraid of the dark area under my bed and have never bought a bed skirt because that's just covering up the scary stuff, which makes it way scarier. I sleep with the closets open so nothing can ever hide from me, and closed shower curtains scare the shit out of me in the middle of the night. I think this is the beginning of a lifetime of scary nights for Madeleine and I'm worried and sad for her. Hey!! Did you just hear that ding? I just had an idea... Nightlite! We'll see - I'll keep you posted.