Why Bother?

Sometimes I wonder why I bothered to get beds for my children.  They prefer to sleep anywhere but their beds.  Here is Abby on her crib mattress sleeping near her bed.  She has been sleeping on this mattress since last summer when I stopped babysitting and it became available to her.  It's in terrible condition and seems like it would be very uncomfortable.  I've warned Abby that it will soon be time to get rid of it and start sleeping on her real bed.  But she loves her mattress.

Ana enjoys sleeping at the foot of her bed on the floor in the small space between her bed and wall.  Can you find her tucked away in there?  Sometimes she ends up mostly under her bed.  She's been sleeping there for the last three months.

David is currently sleeping on his bed, though he goes through spurts of sleeping on the floor beside his bed.  In the summer time, the kids all camp out on the back porch since the upstairs gets so very hot.  So they spend the summer months sleeping on the hard floor.  I wonder if they would suddenly want to sleep on their beds if I got rid of them?  Right now, they are just taking up space in their rooms.  Oh well.  As long as they are comfortable.  I wouldn't be. 

On other exciting news, David got his orthodontic thing out of his mouth yesterday.  It's officially called an "Herbst Appliance".  Doesn't that sound lovely?  He is trying to get used to not having piles of metal stuck in his mouth now.  I think he's enjoying it.  Ana, however, is on the beginning end of her years in the orthodontic clinic.  She has a tiny mouth and does not have room for all her teeth, so her permanent are coming in every which way.  So, she will have to have all four canines pulled (still baby teeth) in the next month.  Then eventually some of her premolars pulled and maybe a grown up tooth or two to make room in her mouth.  She'll also have to have the thing that David had once she gets more permanent teeth.  Poor girl.  She is very, very scared about getting her teeth pulled and was in tears about it once we got to the van.  She has two weeks until appointment #1 (they do it in sets of two).  So we'll have to spend time talking it over together, reassuring, planning good things for the day, and also praying together over her fears.  It makes my mommy heart hurt for her when she gets so upset and scared.