It's a Graduation!

It was a Thursday afternoon. I was ready for a break and my little Will was ready for a nap. I put him in his crib, as I always do. He cried and protested for a bit, as he always does, but quieted down quickly and there was silence. Ahhhhh...break time. This was the small point in the day that I got to eat lunch in a bit of peace, maybe watch a little bit of The Nate Berkus Show, and just maybe talk to Lani on the phone for a few.

Less than 10 minutes into my phone conversation with Lani, there was a knock. A knock that turned into a pound, coming from inside my house. My heart stopped. I started breathing quickly. Can it be? Please...no. More knocking/pounding as I inched my way closer to Will's bedroom door and I heard "Mom! Mama! AHhhhhhhhhhhhhHHH!". My heart stopped.

Houdini had escaped the crib. Crap. Needless to say, there was no nap time that day. Hubby came home shortly after the crib escape happened and I was still in shock. He was in "What do we do?!" mode. I hadn't gotten there yet. We proceeded with our normal evening routine, eating dinner, gave Will a bath, and put him in his pjs. Before making any rash decisions, we attempted to put him to bed, in his crib, complete with the video camera and night vision attachment setup on his dresser. Here is what happened: (The escape begins at 1:25 if you don't want to watch my kid scream like a banshee for a minute and a half...)



After a good nervous laugh, Hubby insisted on taking off the front panel of Will's convertible crib. By the time we decided this and put the plan into motion, it was too late to go pick up a bedrail to keep Captain Crazy from rolling out of bed. We got a smokin' deal on his crib, so I figured I'd order the actual wood piece that converts the crib into a toddler bed, and the rails to convert it into a real bed this Christmas... Moving him into a toddler bed was definitely not on my radar even though we had a minor foot-up-on-the-rail incident a few months back. Although, I should've seen this coming since Will tends to do to everything early. Not only did this crazy kid walk and crawl early, he got teeth quick, and heck! I even felt him kick inside the womb at least 2 weeks before the books say you're supposed to feel it.

Come to find out his crib is discontinued, and although I'm sure I can order it from the company directly, it would definitely cost more than the whopping $24.99 I spent on the easy to clean one I picked up from Babies R Us the next morning. It was super easy to put together, which I did while he ate lunch the following day. No tools required! But I made extra sure that the anchoring mechanism was attached securely...

The first night was pretty easy... He picked out a book that we read to him while he sat on his Big Boy Bed! Oh...this was the word of the evening and we made the biggest deal about it. It's kind of ridiculous how over the top we can be... When the story was over, I laid him down, turned the Glow Worm Seahorse on and it was lights out. I stayed and rubbed his back for a few, but not more than a minute or two. As I was helping Hubby with the dishes, Will began to protest. After a few minutes, here comes Will in the kitchen with the biggest smile on his face and an "Did it!". Yes. Yes you did. Off we go back to the bedroom. More protesting. More putting him back in bed. And then he said "ba-ba" so he got some juice while I sat with him on the sofa and we watched a little bit of tv. We all proceeded to nod off on the sofa. I picked up Will and put him to bed, but he was done. He slept through the night until about 5am when I heard a thud and a cry because he rolled out of bed. Not bad! I brought him in bed with us and he slept until 8am. Hallelujah!

Night #2 was better. I let him pick out a book and we read it to him. After that, Hubby turned off the lights and I rubbed Will's back as we listened to the smooth sounds of his Glow Worm Seahorse and I sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. After one 5 minute play through of the Glow Worm, I turned it on again and stayed for a little bit longer. Then I got up, said "Good Night" and closed the door. He was still awake, but his eyes were rolling and after a few quiet minutes, I did a quiet dance in the living room, and Hubby laughed at me. Typical.

Since then, we've got four successful nights under our belts, and two successful naps (the other days he wasn't home to nap in his big boy bed)! Woot

As if our house wasn't chaotic enough, Will started potty training today. But like I said, he does everything early. This, however, was planned. The bed switch was not. All I have to say is only 3 minor accidents and THREE SUCCESSFUL TINKLES!

But I'll tell you more about that tomorrow.