The Big Boy Bed

Tyler first climbed out of his crib long ago (during a furious time-out session) but with encouragement, opted to respect the boundaries of those four rails for several months. A couple of weeks ago, however, he began climbing over the rail on an increasing basis. At first, Tyson simply removed the lightbulb from the lamp on his nightstand - blinding the kid dissuaded him from climbing out. But Tyler soon became brave enough to venture out of his crib in the dark. So I began persistently encouraging Tyson to convert the crib into the toddler bed, and began warming Tyler up to the idea.

Tyler is slow to warm up to change, and I'd noticed a classmate from high school putting up daily posts of her 2.75 year old sleeping on the floor next to his toddler bed (more specifically, on the floor next to his bedroom door, where a baby gate is conveniently installed.) I didn't bother reading the details of her posts, the pictures were clear enough. So I was anticipating a similar situation might happen in our house.

Converting the crib to a toddler bed was much easier than we anticipated. We showed Tyler his new bed and helped him explore the advantages of having a low railing and an open area. He immediately proceeded to practice doing a headstand into a somersault over the railing and landing on his reading pillow.

We debated which end of the bed should be the "head" end. Tyler's been sleeping with his head close to the door, but we decided to put his head towards the wall in the hopes of encouraging deeper sleep. Tyler was reluctant, but Tyson eventually coaxed him into sleeping the direction WE wanted him to sleep.

There's a long but funny video of Tyson trying to put Tyler to bed. If I ever learn how to edit I'll put it up. Tyson almost has him tucked in, when the mandatory "orange car" falls behind the bed. As Tyson struggles to reach the car, Tyler gets out of the covers and returns to standing. The next procrastination strategy, asking for water, is practiced. And then the request for milk. The only tactic he forgot to try was the last minute call of nature.

We said goodnight, and ventured down the hallway to the living room, reminiscing about the night we first banished him from our room, and how long that hallway had seemed at the time. The hallway feels so much shorter now. We braced ourselves for Tyler to reappear. We discussed the various strategies we may have to employ to keep him in his bed. But amazingly, Tyler stayed put.

The next morning, I heard Tyler cry,  went back to his bedroom, and reminded him he could get out of his bed by himself. Later that day, after his nap, Tentative Tyler cautiously emerged from his room, with a look of "Am I in trouble???" written all over his face. I encouraged him to enjoy the big boy privilege of getting out of his bed independently. Sunday night went smoothly. Monday night, however, was another story. I heard Tyler crying and realized he was outside our bedroom door. I returned him to his room, but he insisted "I wake up!" He asked to sleep in our room. He asked to sleep on the couch. Finally, we compromised, and he slept at the foot of his bed, with just the dinosaur blanket on. But Tuesday night he stayed in his bed all night again. This morning, he appeared just outside our doorway at 6:15am. He hesitated at our door, but when I asked, "Does it feel good to get out of bed all by yourself?" he beamed, exuding confidence. His good mood seemed to last all day.

We know not to get too confident, we know he could at any time decide to test the limits. But for now, we're thinking that converting the crib to a toddler bed, rather than buying a new toddler bed, may be helping this transition. He seems to take comfort from the familiar bars. He loves jumping off the open end of the bed, and somersaulting over the railing end of the bed. He's putting up with being tucked in, so he's actually staying asleep during the night, instead of kicking off the blanket and waking up cold. So far, we're all loving this set up.

Other updates...Tyler's now counting up to 20, and loves identifying letters in words he sees on billboards, advertisements, trucks...For about two months, he's loved singing. He likes "Rubber Ducky", "Sweet Little Baby", "The Song of 5", and occasionally will sing us the "We Love You" song. His favorite book right now is Train Song (provided, once again, by the Glass-Johnson family. Great sounds in that book, lots of clickety clack, down the track type stuff.) He plays with his trainset every morning and night. Vader insists on laying on Tyler's trainset, every morning and every night. Tyler loves seeing trains on the way in to work, and loves eating Barrio Brewery because trains pass by there often. He still loves dinosaurs and dragons, too.

We're figuring out better how to help Tyler get through rough moments in his day. We're helping him learn to identify the feelings behind his actions, and he's taken too it. It's so cute and heartbreaking to hear him blurt out "I'm sad!!!" We try to find out what he wants to do next, then link it to the completion of the task WE want him to do - "You want to read books? Okay, first we have to go to the bathroom", or "okay, first we gotta brush our teeth." We're also figuring out that "No" may become "Yes" in just a few minutes. And then, my sister sent us the book, "Your Spirited Child", and I already feel like I'm getting some good strategies from that, and learning more about Tyson and myself along the way.

Tyler's been helping me lately with improving our back yard. I'm excited that the yard is no longer simply a barren plot of dirt surrounded by grey cinder blocks. Now it's a barren plot of dirt surrounded by grey cinder blocks with a raised flower bed at one end. No seriously, it makes me feel so much better to have something green and alive in our backyard. Eventually it will become much more.The goal is for the vines (Lady Banks Rose) to spread all along the wall to keep the wall cool, and the trailing rosemary to dangle over the retaining wall. Hoping the lavender will spread out wide, the butterfly bush will get taller, and the salvia will come back to life. (Vader ate it. He climbed up the wall, sat on the rosemary bushes, and ate it. The selfish jerk...But I think it'll come back.) I hope to add more potted plants to the base of the wall, so eventually there will be four levels of plants, to create the illusion that we have a bigger yard than we really do. And to prevent Vader from marking the wall or from eating any more plants.The potted plants are gardenias and Arabian jasmine. Not sure the jasmine will make it, it was an impulse buy, and will need more water than the other plants. So all the plants have either white or purple flowers (or will, at some point. Assuming I can keep them all alive...)Tyler loves transferring soil, and especially loves watering the plants. I learned, after planting these, that I'm supposed to actually remove that center stake on the rose vines, and that, even though Lowe's was kind enough to grow me nice, tall, vines, I actually need to cut them down to 4-6 inches from the soil, and let the plant start over. So I have to lose some of the green! I guess I'm supposed to prune that butterfly bush down as well. Oh well, at least I got to enjoy the green for a couple of days...