A three-bedroom home

We moved into our house between Christmas 2009-New Year's 2010, about two months before Miss Quinn was born. We built this house with three bedrooms: a modest-sized master bedroom with a big closet and high ceilings; tucked right next door is a little nursery with a cornfield view and pocket closet doors painted a soft cream; down the hall, with a bird's-eye view of our beautiful neighborhood is a slightly bigger room with a walk-in closet and lots of space to play.

When Randy and I moved in, we were 25 and 24 years old. Our house seemed huge! It was easy to keep clean. Our brand-new canopy bed was a dream come true for me. I filled Quinn's closet with dresses and headbands, dressed her bed in pink and white butterflies, decorated her walls with Randy's handmade wooden trees and birds, and waited for her arrival. When she came, she slept in a bassinet at our bedside for three short weeks. For the 18 months that followed, the little corner nursery, with the beautiful cherry-red crib was her home. That nursery watched over her for hundreds of nights, many filled with sweet, sleepy dreams, and many filled with tears over sore teeth or infected ears. She left behind a row of teeth marks on the side of that crib, marking her territory for future brothers and sisters. At 16 months she climbed out of that crib, and at 19 months old, she moved down the hall.

Quinn has been sleeping in her big-girl room for two weeks now! (I will post pictures of it when I can get some taken.) She is doing so well sleeping in a big-girl bed. We didn't get a toddler bed; we just utilized the mattress and bed frame we already had, which happens to be a full-size bed. I can't believe I have a child old enough to sleep in her very own bed. I marvel sometimes at how the days can go by so slowly but the years so fast.

Wes slept in the little corner nursery for the first time last night. I wish I could say it was a peaceful, restful night, but it wasn't. However, he has the same trees and birds watching over him, now hanging on sage-green walls. Brown-and-white crib bedding provides a soft place for him to snooze, and the closet that was once filled with pretty dresses now houses Gap jeans, plaid shirts, and overalls. In time, he too will sleep peacefully through the night, and I will gently rouse him in the morning, breathe in his sweet, sleepy smell, and kiss his soft forehead because I've missed him so much.

While we have had plenty of guests stay with us over the almost two years that we've lived here, last night, for the first time, it felt like we were really filling up our three-bedroom home. Our canopy bed is now full of a wild-haired toddler, a nursing baby, and two tired parents. Our house isn't always so clean, and it definitely doesn't feel so big anymore. We will have many more sleepless nights in this house (but hopefully just as many peaceful ones). My house might never look like I want it to, and I will probably never have enough storage space.

For now, though, I will just be thankful for the funny, dynamic, sweet girl down the hall, the chubby-cheeked, wispy-haired baby tucked in next door, and the smart, calm, and loving man always by my side.