Big Boy Bed

On Thursday I became even more certain that my now 2 year old is really becoming a BIG boy.  I put him down for his nap as usual, and returned downstairs to nurse and rock Jonas to sleep.  That's our routine.  All of a sudden, I hear some movement and the tap-tap-tap of little feet racing across the floor.  Then the sound of a door knob rattling, and finally, "Mama, da dow is stuck!"  He climbed out of his crib!!!

I went up to see just how he did it, and with a huge smile, he proudly displayed his climbing abilities.  I was impressed.  But, I told him it was nap time and he had to stay in bed.  I tucked him in, said a prayer, told him I loved him and left.  Not 3 minutes later, he was walking down the stairs.  We repeated this 6 or 7 times and finally resulted in punishment.  An hour and a half later, he took his nap. 

When Mau got home, he showed him his newly acquired skills.  And we recorded it for your viewing pleasures:

So, for two days we were allowing him to climb out, but it was annoying because he coudn't get back in.  Also, my Mama instinct was telling me this was probably a bad idea.  It only takes ONE slip to make a broken arm, or worse.  Besides, we bought a convertible crib for just this reason... so it could convert once we needed it to.  Climbing out is a sure sign that it's time.

We went to Buy Buy Baby and bought a bed rail, and took off the front panel of the crib.  Marco now has a BIG Boy Bed.

We have also heard stories of children escaping their rooms in the middle of the night, eating from the fridge or waking up their parents.  Some people lock the door from the inside, others put the childproof door handles on the inside... we chose to put up a gate.  Seriously, I could be a world class hurdler with all the gates we have up in our house... 2 that we jump over to get to the kitchen, 2 that swing for the stairs and now one to get into the boys' room.  

Our first night in the BBB (Big Boy Bed) went better than expected.  Our problem was not having an escapee, but having a wakey.  Marco does not let Jonas sleep.  Within a few minutes of leaving their room, Marco had gotten out of bed, overturned a basket and climbed on top of it to be able to reach into Jonas' crib.  Then, screaming.  Jonas was not happy to have been woken up.  I had to bring Jonas downstairs until I was certain that Marco had fallen asleep.  In the morning, we realized that the gate at the door was not going to stop him.  Duh... if he can climb out of a crib, how is a gate going to stop him?!  He was in our room by 8:30, asking for a diaper change.  

Marco was so excited to be in a BBB.  He's so proud of himself!  We keep pumping him up and telling him that he's SO BIG.  Our next stop on the road to Big Boyhood is getting rid of the paci.  We're already talking about it, so it shouldn't be too long now.