Big Boy Bed!

February 2012

All signs pointed to the fact that that it was time:

1)  Jack had learned to climb out of his crib and, although it had lost its novelty, I was still a little nervous that he might fall while climbing out.

2)  Tommy's Mom was staging her house in Houston to sell and was ready to give Tommy the twin bed that he had slept on his whole life, as had his Dad before him.

3)  It was time to move the crib into the baby room and start decorating it for our new arrival.

So it was time for Jack to upgrade to a big boy bed.  Tommy's Dad met him in Houston to pick up Tommy's old bed and desk to move into Jack's room.  Since both of them had grown up with the bed, they were both so excited to pass it along to Jack.  Of course, we knew the theme of the room had to be the Disney Cars movie, so we went out to buy a Cars bedspread and a few accessories.  Cousin Lincoln graciously provided the cool rug.  After a few hours of hard work from Daddy and Poppy, the bed and desk were all set up!

 

Here's the little guy on his first night in his big boy bed.  He was so excited!

The first few nights went well, until he figured out that he could get out of bed.  The next few nights were a little bit of a struggle, with Jack coming out of his room more times than I care to remember.  I must admit, we used a technique learned from the Supernanny television show.  We took him back in his room once after that with hugs and a "goodnight, Jack."  The second time we were a little sterner - "time for bed, Jack."  Each time after that, we would just put him back in bed with no words.  Those couple of nights were extremely tiresome, but he eventually learned that he wasn't getting anywhere by coming out of his room.

Not too long after he moved into his big boy bed, Jack took a flashlight into bed with him one night.  A few minutes after we turned out the lights, we heard a shrill cry, followed by lots of tears.  Tommy rushed upstairs and asked what was wrong and Jack, still scared pointed to a wall of the room and said,  "There was a little boy in my room.  Over there!"  Tommy wasn't sure what he meant and was little unnerved.  He asked him if the little boy was still there, and Jack said no, and looked at Tommy like he was a little crazy.  I had an idea - maybe, with the flashlight turned on, Jack had seen his shadow.  Tommy turned off the lights and turned on the flashlight and asked Jack if his shadow against the wall was the little boy he had seen.  Sure enough, it was.  Jack was still a little freaked out, but we explained all about shadows to him and showed him that Mommy and Daddy had one too, he decided that his room was safe for sleeping.  For the next few days after that, we were pointing out our own shadows on the pavement as we walked into school, Max and Albert's shadows, and shadows of virtually everything else.  It's so fun to see his little mind working and learning.  He's growing up so fast!