So Michael got his tools and quickly removed the front rail of the crib. We didn't have the smaller rail to put back on ( it was at my moms) so we put some cushions down and told Oliver this is your new bed, your big boy bed. We attempted to teach him how to lay on a pillow and use a blanket (hard to remember when this was a foreign concept but at some point it was for us all I suppose). Then we said okay you need to take a nap and left the room. Only a short minute passed when there he was, in all his glory, standing in the middle of our living room. Our escape artist was at it again and now he was into opening doors. What were we going to do? WE tried again, one more time, putting him in there and telling him it was time to take a nap. We said, "Mommy and Daddy are going to take naps too, we are tired." to which he responded, "no you're not." And before I could even get settled in the recliner for what I was hoping was a moment of peace I heard the door open and a little voice call out, "Hey Michael, this is not working." Well that sent Michael and I right over the edge. We began to laugh histerically. Tears streaming down our face we heard Oliver say, "I am not joking." Yep, that is exactly what he said and with no lack of dramatic flair and attitude. It was then we decided to give up on a nap for that day. Oliver- 1 point. Mommy and Daddy- 0.
And the saga continues. That night he was so exhausted that all he could do was put up enough of a fight for Michael to lay on the floor next to his bed until he drifted off to sleep. The score was even. BUT then there was nap time the next day. He really liked the idea of a big boy bed. In fact the idea had put a little bit of an extra jump in his step, a sort of grown-up swagger you might say. But the reality of actually sleeping in the bed he was not such a fan of. We once again tried to put him down for his nap. But the second we would leave the room he would run to the door and open it up and cry and scream at the top of his lungs. So we tried a child's gate secured to the outside of the door frame. Ah this must be it, we thought, this will solve our problems. But we failed to remember that he had already successfully climbed and dismounted from the crib so why not this pitiful little child's gate? Now it was time to get serious. He had gotten out and woken up his brother and it was time to lay the smack down. ( I should mention that at this point Michael had made a run to Home Depot to purchase something to go on the door to make it impossible for little man to open). And so I said, "Oliver, you must stay in here and take a nap. I have to go help your brother who is crying because you woke him up. I love you. Take a nap." And who knows why but this one request he seemed to listen to and heed. When Michael got home and went in to attach the contraption he had bought he found Oliver just sitting there, chilling on his chair. And so finally he took a nap in his big boy bed. Oliver-1 Mommy and Daddy- 2. We win.
However I must add that every morning and every day after he wakes up from nap he says, "this is not working." We ask, "Your bed?" He responds, "Yes, bed is not working." And he continues to insist that his bed needs batteries. In his words, "Needs batteries. Two. Mimi batteries (Mimi put in the batteries)" We did ask him where he felt his bed needs batteries? And he pointed to a place were there were two screws and said, "right there."
It has been an interesting week but Michael and I both agree that at the end of the day, when all is said and done, we lay in bed and look in the monitor and there might be nothing cuter in the entire world then our little man fast asleep with his head on his pillow in his big boy bed. Well except for his equally adorable baby brother laying asleep on his tummy with this thumb in his mouth in the room next door.
Here is our sweet baby boy who is getting bigger everyday. This week he started sitting in his very own high chair.
