I still have so much to get to from our recent vacation — now that I’ve gotten the difficult bit out of the way. We’ll start today with a small thing that wasn’t small at all.

The vacation condo we rent in the Outer Banks is a three-bedroom unit. You could say it’s more than we need for our family of four, but each child having their own room provides for much better sleeping, and I’ll gladly pay extra for that.

The first year, Riley chose the room with the king-size bed, while Ryan was happy to end up in the room with bunk beds. We gave Ryan the option of switching halfway through the week, but he wanted to stay where he was. Each of the last two years, we’ve given him first pick of rooms, and both times he has chosen to stay in “his” room with the bunk beds.

For two years, he slept every night in the bottom bunk. We encouraged him to use the top bunk if he wanted to, but he always chose to stay in the relative safety of the bottom bed.

This year started out the same with Ryan spending the first night in the bottom bunk. But something changed between night one and night two, and Ryan declared he would sleep in the top bunk from then on.

Which is exactly what he did. We worried about him a bit, as he tends to get up several times each night, but he was fine. We checked on him the first night and found him sleeping on his back, straight as a board, arms at his side. But he got more comfortable as the week went on.

Something so little, but not little at all. It was another example of Ryan showing a little flexibility and willingness to alter his routines, to experience something that would be seen as “normal” for so many kids.

Ryan will again get first pick of rooms if we go back next year. I suspect I know where he will choose to sleep — both which room and which bed.