No More Crib!

Alex has been threatening to climb out of his crib for a while now.  Not so much in sentence format, but the threat has existed.  It was there when I watched him expertly climb up the rock wall on the big kids section of the park.  It was there when he started insisting on scrambling into his car seat on his own.  It hovered in the air as he started climbing up on the stools at our breakfast bar.  This kid can climb, I heard someone (God or perhaps a commercial) whisper into my ear.  You're on borrowed time with the crib.

It finally happened on Monday.  The boys went to bed, and then Chris heard Andy calling for him just a few minutes later.  "Daddy, something's happening in here!"  Andy yelled.  From my spot on the couch downstairs (as it was past seven and officially Wine & Vampire-Related-Movie-or-TV-Show time), I then heard Chris calling for me.  "Jackie, you're going to want to see this."

And I did want to see it, but I also didn't, as I was pretty sure what had happened.  Alex had, of course, launched himself out of the crib.  But then he had gone into the closet and dragged out his Crayola suit case. As Chris and I watched on from the doorway, he proceeded to walk purposefully around his room and toss in every last one of his toys.  The kid had escaped the clutches of the crib and was ready to move out and start a life on his own.  Perhaps his plan was to barter his McDonald Happy Meal toys for actual Happy Meals as to nourish himself out in the big, bad world.

We put him back in the crib and closed the door.  From the hallway, I could hear the groans of crib bars being scaled and then the eventual thud of a two year old hitting the carpet.  We opened the door, and there was Alex, just walking around.  Not even proudly.  Just... inevitably.  As if he owned the place.  And we all know he doesn't own anything, as everything around here truly belongs to me, Daddy, or Andy.  The second baby just tends to borrow, not own.

Last night, before bed time, Chris tackled the task of converting the crib into a toddler bed.  The crib converts from crib to toddler bed to twin bed to studio apartment.  You really get your money's worth on these things!  This was no easy job as the various components to the crib/toddler bed/ studio apartment were scattered in various sections of our house.  Chris asked a couple times, seemingly just to annoy me, "Where are the instructions to this thing?"  There are no instructions, Chris.  I threw them out.  Who keeps instructions?  Everything's online.  Just finish converting this damn thing so we can continue on with our sure to be painfully frustrating evening.  

The crib got converted, eventually, and then it was bed time. Andy got tucked in on his side of the room in his own bed, and we optimistically stuck Alex into his "new" toddler bed and covered him up.  "Night night," we told him.  "Don't get out of bed!"

I can't even begin to count how many times Alex got out of bed or calculate the level of noise that came out of their shared room last night.  How many times did we go into the bedroom to cajole/ reason/ punish that kid back into his bed?  Even Andy was irritated, poor kid.  The boys sharing a room has never really been a problem- in many ways, it's been a nice thing having them together- until last night when Alex was free to roam.  Finally, so frustrated and exhausted, Andy shook his head and proclaimed, "I don't think Alex is ready for a big boy bed.  Please put the crib back together."

Eventually, after Chris gave him a "time out" for being too damn rowdy, Alex settled down in his bed and fell asleep.  Around two o'clock in the morning, he fell out of the one little spot that didn't have a rail, landing directly on his head.  I scooped him up, stuck him back in the bed, and promised to return with a cup of milk to make him feel better.  Obviously, that was a lie, and I did not get him any milk and instead went back to sleep. In the morning, I was greeted with not one boy traipsing into my bedroom but TWO boys.  Two boys just out and about and perfectly capable of wandering around the house at whatever early morning time they deem okay.

It's a whole new ball game over here.  

And so, tonight will be Night Two.  Today's nap tactic in the new bed is (wait for it), NO NAP at all! Wow!  Yay!  I'm hoping Alex will be so tired by bed time that he won't feel the urge to get up, walk around, pack a suitcase, or jump on Andy's face.  I'm hoping tomorrow we can attempt a normal nap.  By normal, I of course mean horrible.  One day at a time.  One night at a time.  And then one more day at a time until we reach the next milestone, which I hope involves the boys doing some chores or something.