Sharing a room

As I have mentioned before, we live in Southern California. Which means we pay a ridiculous amount of money to live in a hovel. It also means that Isaac and Vivian share a room. A small room. As in, 10' x 10'. Right now it is decorated with a fire engine theme but we are going to change that to something more unisex at some point. Hopefully before Vivian goes to college.

When Vivian was an infant, she slept in her Moses basket in various rooms of the house. But in December we put up the crib and started the sharing of the room. I was a little nervous about this, but we didn't have a choice, as it was either share a room or put one of them out on the front porch. Besides, people with experience had told me that it would be fine, sharing a room was the best thing they ever did for their kids, they won't wake each other up, they will be so much closer as they grow up, and so on.

Problem #1: Vivian's morning nap.
Isaac cannot play in their room if she is napping. Isaac needs access to each and every toy at all times or he will drive Mommy crazy.

Solution: While Vivian naps, Mommy allows Isaac to watch Sesame Street.
Okay! That wasn't so hard.

Problem #2: Afternoon nap.
Vivian only sleeps for about an hour in the afternoon. Isaac will usually sleep 2.5 to 3 hours, so long as his fussing sister does not wake him up.

Solution: Mommy simply runs in and snatches Vivian out of the room the first minute she starts to peep.
Okay, this has worked in that Isaac isn't waking up anymore. However, it does not give Vivian the chance to go back to sleep on her own, so she is perpetually tired. But she's perpetually tired anyway, since she refuses to sleep, so I can live with this.

Problem #3: Isaac learned how to climb out of his crib, and worse, into Vivian's.

Solution: Fortunately for Mommy, and perhaps not so fortunately for Isaac, this one solved itself. Twice in a row when Isaac climbed out of the crib, he really bonked himself. He has remained in the crib ever since.

Problem #4: When Vivian wakes up in the night to be fed, she wakes her brother up.

Solution: The only solution to this problem is to teach Vivian to stop waking up at night. So far we have mixed results.

Problem #5: Anyone who wakes up in the night usually wakes up his/her sibling.
This is true about 75% of the time.

Solution: There does not seem to be a solution to this problem. Anyone?

Problem #6: Although Isaac is no longer climbing out of the crib, he does have a new trick.
He throws all his blankets, stuffed animals, socks--anything he can reach--from his crib into his sister's, much to their mutual delight.

Solution: we make sure there is nothing heavy or sharp in his crib. W go in and check on them periodically and pull the extras out of Vivian's bed, not returning them to Isaac.
This has not worked well at all. We put the kids to bed at 7:30, and lately it is almost 9 before the fun of throwing things into Vivian's crib and being reprimanded by Mom is over.

So this sharing a room, it's not going so well.