I never thought this day would come, but it has! Cullen has outgrown his crib!
I always wake up once I hear the boys talking in their room and if I have anywhere to be that morning I take a shower before going in to get them. Well, yesterday morning I got out of the shower and was shocked to see Cullen standing in the hallway- surrounded by about 20 yards of dental floss that he'd unraveled and tangled himself up in. He just looked at me and nonchalantly said "Hewwo." I asked him how he got out of bed and he just gave me a sly smile. Jack was screaming in fury by this point after having to witness his brother's escape from the crib and being unable to do it himself.
We didn't have the toddler bed set up yet and I wasn't even sure he'd be able to do it again anyways, so I put him down to nap in his crib later in the afternoon and put two huge couch cushions underneath just in case. Sure enough, a couple of hours later I see Cullen coming down the stairs. He hadn't even made a peep! Apparently climbing out was just so much more fun and easier than calling for Mom.
So last night, I had Brandon take down the crib and set up the one toddler bed that I'd found at the consignment sale a few weeks ago. Before we took the crib apart though I had Cullen show me how he got out. And I have never laughed so hard in my entire life! He went to the corner, hoisted himself up, swung his leg over one of the rails and then pulled the rest of his body up so that he was perching on the ledges of the crib. He was just like a little Spiderman! The he slowly lowered himself down and landed on his feet! Incredible! Kids must be very strong for their size because I seriously doubt I could have lifted my entire body over a railing that was up to my shoulders. I was so amazed that he could do that!
Anyways, last night was his first night in a toddler bed and it actually went pretty well! We fixed his doorknob so that he can't open it anymore (it was broken so that you didn't have to turn the knob to open it, just pull on it a little, that's how he got out in the morning) and put away almost everything he could reach. At first, we could hear him walking around in the dark for a while and then he came and laid by the door and cried for about 30 minutes but then it went silent! When I checked on him later, he was sound asleep in his bed!
But naptime is a whole different story! We just tried that this afternoon and it didn't go over too well. He walked around pulling clothes out of his drawers and throwing them into the trashcan for over 2 hours. Then he started yelling "Emma" (the cat's name) very loudly finally started crying so I just gave up and went to get him. I was afraid he'd wake Jack who was taking a fabulous 3 hour nap.
And I'm at a loss about what to do. I'm thinking that I might set up a pack n' play in our bedroom for the time being and let Cullen nap in there. If he escapes from that too, at least he won't wake Jack up. But I have no idea what to do once Jack needs a toddler bed too. Can you imagine those two having free reign over their bedroom for a few hours each day?! I don't even like thinking about it! If anybody has any advice about this transition (especially if you had two children in the same room) I'd greatly appreciate it!
Brandon and I disagreed a little about whether to discipline him for getting out of bed or just ignore him and let him get his curiosity out and eventually learn that he needs to sleep when he's tired. I'm sure you can guess who was on what side ;-) My idea sort of worked last night but not at all during naptime. And we can't have two different standards for bedtime and naptime. And I'm also not very confident that it would work once they're both in toddler beds and can get out and play together. There's no actual toys in their room but those boys can make anything into a toy, as evidenced by the fact that Cullen occupied himself for 2 hours with nothing but his dresser drawers. So if anybody else has experienced this, please let me know how you did it! And please tell me we can keep their 3 hour naps going strong! I was really loving those!
As Brandon was setting up the toddler bed last night I took this one last video of the boys wrestling and playing together in Cullen's crib. I'm not gonna lie, I teared up a little bit. I just love seeing them bouncing and wrestling together! I'm sure there will be lots more of that in the future but for some reason I was really emotional about the boys playing together in that particular crib for the very last time. Silly I know, but I feel like they're growing up too fast! Anyways, enough mushy mommy talk, here's the video:
Friday, November 19, 2010
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2 comments:
The video was just too precious. So glad you could capture that. Good luck and I hope you get some good suggestions. Guess we know who the instigator will be! Jack and Cullen are just too darn cute.
The video is so cute. We loved watching it. Brandon and Scott never had youth beds; I guess Brandon wasn't as clever as Cullen and stayed in the crib until he was ready for his big bed. I barely remember, so I'm no help at all... except to pray for you!
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