I worried for months leading up to operation “Twin Beds” representing a huge adjustment for Hanna and Ellie who would lose their queen sized beds and the privacy of their own rooms.

I worried they would both blame Chloe who at the time was “the new baby.” The new baby meant Ellie having to leave the room she had known as being all her own. The place she moved out of the crib and into her big girl bed. The room where she learned to be brave at night, to leaf through books (usually upside down) before she could read them herself, the room where we rocked in that chair for countless hours as she reflected on her day—all of that changed when Chloe arrived.

We had a decision to make. Nobody was old enough to move down to the basement and with a three bedroom house it’s not so much as it was the easiest solution but really the only solution. The two older girls would bunk together until it made sense to move someone downstairs.

I thought of how poor Hanna, the oldest, must have felt having to divide her closet space, her dresser and lose her big bed, downsizing and gaining a chatty roommate who adored her older sister and hung on her every word.

Would they fight?

Would they keep each other awake at night?

Would they argue over nightlights, personal property and feel unfairly positioned in this new environment?

Would they become friends?

We are now two and a half years into this arrangement and I was delighted to walk into Ernie and Bert’s apartment yesterday to this.