I am hosting turkey day this year – yay! We have a significant portion of my side of the family coming – two sibs plus my parents. We’ve tried to move Craig into the big boys’ room in advance of their visit, in order to make room for visitors. It is . . . not going well. Both of his big brothers were in big boy beds at this age – Jack because he was about to get a new baby brother who was going to need the crib; and Liam because he started climbing out of the crib and falling headfirst over the side, taking out lamps and desks and his own brain in the process. A crib mattress on the floor seemed safer for Liam, even though it meant he was free to wander the house and climb on things while we slept.
Craig is also a little climber, and he can get out of a Pack and Play crib with ease, but he’s never yet attempted to escape the real, full-sized crib. Nevertheless, he’s nearing age two which is the age of the Big Boy Bed in our parenting experience so far, and we thought he’d enjoy being in a big old bunk room with his brothers. So we put the big crib away and got him ready for Operation Big Boy Bed. We created a little nest in the bottom bunk in the boys’ room, with bed rails all around so it’s hard to fall/climb out. There are only a few inches to spare between the top of the mesh bedrail and the bottom of the top bunk. It is enough room to squeeze the little porker through for bedtime, but we assumed would be narrow enough to serve as a discouragement to his climbing back out. We were incorrect in that assumption. We underestimated his resolve. He flops on his belly, sticks his feet over the side, and then backs himself over til he’s a little roly poly pill bug hung up on the rail, bisected at the midsection, with two fat little legs kicking angrily while he squawks, red-faced. “Out! Out! Out! No! No!” After much labored maneuvering, he eventually gets the bulk of his weight see-sawed from the front end of his body to the back end and uses gravity to help him wiggle through the gap, dropping heavily to the trundle bed below. He then squeals delightedly, lumbers across the room and dives headfirst in the boys’ toy chest to play. It really is quite annoying. He is very determined – I have seen him spend about ten minutes in this process start to finish, but he never waivers in his resolve to get to that toy chest.
I have popped myself through the gap to lay with him in the bottom bunk to read books and get him to go to sleep, but he just beats me mercilessly with his flailing toddler head, wailing in dismay to get OUT! OUT! and kicking me in the face as he tries to flee. Unfortunately I guess the boys’ bedroom has also been their play room, where we banish all three to go play some weekends so we can have a few precious seconds of quiet, and so now in Craig’s mind it is not a place for sleep or rest, but rather a place for THROWING DOWN!
We’re still working with this situation, somewhat bummed about having lost the absolute easiest baby in the world to put to bed. Used to be you read him a book, plopped him in bed, blew kisses, quacked like his stuffed Donald Duck (‘what does a duck say?’ ‘quack quack!’), said I love you (‘Lub yew’), and left. No tears, no fuss, no nothing – he’d fall asleep in seconds. Now bedtime is a battle field. The big boys try to be helpful, but what can any of us do in the face of such determination? I tried to move his Pack and Play in the room temporarily to teach him it is a place for sleeping (a two-step deal – he’d later move from Pack and Play to bed). He just heaves a dimpled chubby foot over the side of the Pack and Play and hoists himself out. We could re-build the crib in there I guess, but ugh what a lot of work that would be for a very short term solution, and what if he just climbs out of that?
I have that parental amnesia where I have no earthly idea how we managed this transition with the other two boys. This is my third go-round – I should be better at this by now.
I am 35 years and about 145 pounds ahead of this kid. I should be winning more than I’m winning here. I’ll let you know when I vanquish my foe. In the meantime, wish me luck.