How Hailey Finally Got Her Own Room (for a short time anyway)

Sometimes (okay, a lot of the time) I complain about Hailey. She is so different than me, and challenges me in so many ways, but the truth is, it must be hard being the oldest of 5. She has been sharing a room with at least one person since before she was 2 years old. She has the most and the hardest chores, and does them the best and most consistently. I expect a ton from her academically and have pushed her to do her very best. I have asked so much from her from the very beginning and she is a wonderful child. Lately she has been AMAZING, like a whole different child. I am not going to say she never has her moments, but I feel like there is light at the end of a two year emotional tunnel! Before Brayden was born I decided that I would move the toys downstairs and put some kids in the "toy room." At that point I "decided" but didn't do anything about it. Our basement has been a total mess for 2 years. When we moved in we put a bunch of stuff down there and as we needed things we would go and open boxes and look for this or that and we would take things down there we weren't using and let the kids go down and play with things like playdough and we have food storage down there and basically everything exploded onto the 1700 square feet of cement. Anyway, long story short, it wasn't something I was ready to tackle pregnant. A few weeks ago I decided the time had come and I spent a whole week down there going through and organizing everything. It's amazing the difference, but really not what this post is supposed to be about. Then I moved all of the toys downstairs and made a play area in the basement. It's really nice for the kids and I don't get nearly the flow of toys into my family room that I used to get.

When I started doing all of this, I knew I wanted to move Brayden in there eventually, but didn't know which of the girls or how many of them I would move in with him. At first I thought maybe Lilly and Natalie because they were the youngest and just split them up older and younger. Then I thought Ally because she is probably my deepest sleeper and that way if Brayden was crying in the night it might not bother her. Finally I decided Hailey would be the one. She is after all the oldest so if anyone was going to be getting new furniture and a new room it should be her.(there are positives to being the oldest as well as the afore mentioned negatives) Plus I have been thinking she needs her own space, and I was right. We told her that she would be sharing with Brayden in a little bit and if his crying bothers her we may have to change things around but for now Hailey gets the room.The first night after I moved the toys downstairs and got the room all scrubbed down, we still didn't have any furniture for her, so we told her she could sleep on a crib mattress in the new room or she could sleep in the room with her sisters one last time. As you can see Hailey and all of her "friends" made the change as soon as possible. The next day she and Allan went to the store to get the bed we had found in an ad. We went through the ads and found a couple of options. Turned out the one we originally liked only came with a headboard and no frame so we went with our second choice (which I am now happy we did.) Unfortunately our second choice was out of stock at the store here in Idaho Falls and the sale was ending that day with no rain checks. We called up Allan's sister in Pocatello and she went to the store and bought the bed for us! (Thank goodness for our wonderful family) This meant a few more nights of sleeping on the crib mattress, but it was well worth it.Hailey has loved having her own room. She has decorated it a bit with her things placed just how she wants them. Most mornings she gets up and makes her bed right away and straightens her things. She does her homework on her bed, and gets to stay up later than everyone and read without worrying about having her light on and bothering her little sisters. Back to my first comments, I am not sure if it is having her own room and space that is making her have a better attitude and be more helpful all around, but she has been a dream kid since moving into her room a couple of weeks ago.

I want to write a few things about Hailey. She is so smart. She has been reading chapter books since first grade and is now reading fourth grade level books in second grade. She probably reads anywhere from 3-5 chapter books a week as well as several short books. She has been working on an accelerated math program that her school has and passed off over 110 objectives and is now doing multiplication and division, fractions, weights and measurements, and much more! She is super helpful around the house and with her siblings. She loves to unload the dishwasher and help fold and put away laundry. She cleans her own room, of course, but is also incharge of keeping the kids bathroom clean. She almost always helps clean up the toy room even when she has been at school all day while her sisters made the mess. She will walk Brayden around when he is fussy and she is big enough that I don't have to worry about her dropping him or something like that. She is really obedient. An example of this is 25c Fridays. The kids can take $ and buy treats. Anyway, Hailey is allowed to take $1 a week if she has been good, but sometimes she loses quarters. She takes the $ out of her little bank each week and puts it in her wallet, and every week she only takes what she is supposed to, so if she lost 2 quarters, she will only take 50c. She does what she is told, although sometimes not quickly she just needs to understand why and then do it in her own time.

Well this is getting a little long (or a lot) but the point is I love Hailey and I am so grateful to have her in our family. Like I said she is different than me, but it helps me to learn and grow, all of my kids are different and present different challenges and blessings. Hailey is such a special girl!