we're there

Moving up to a "big kid bed" has for the most part been a parent-directed thing in our family.  We've usually hit the point at about age 2 for each child, and it's usually come at the same time that we've been expecting another little one and realized that the crib was going to be needed for the baby.

Just the other day, as we were talking to some family members about their granddaughter trying to get out of the crib and breaking her arm int he process, I thought about CAC getting close to the age when we might need to make the transition.  But I still think of her as small and figured we had some time.

What I forgot was that CAC has something that the older kids didn't: three older siblings.  She may be small, but she has learned from the best.  She definitely holds her own when it comes to expressing herself, defending what she feels is hers, and so on.

So, it shouldn't have surprised me when, two days ago, after hearing her awake in her room after her nap, I went in to her room to get her out of her crib only to find her at the door.  "Hi Mommy," she said as she walked past me and out of her room to find the rest of the kids.  I figured she had climbed out of her crib and wasn't quite sure what I was going to do about it, but then forgot about it until bedtime that night.  We came home from our Stake Roadshows a little after bedtime and so I quickly put CAC to bed (in the crib) first while the older kids went downstairs to get ready for bed.  TEC was a bit behind us getting home and came downstairs in time for prayers and I noticed that he had CAC in his arms.  At first I was annoyed that he had gotten her up, but then realized that she had probably gotten up herself just as she had done that afternoon.  So, we got the big kids settled to bed and went back upstairs to address the situation.

We took CAC into her room and I set her in her crib.  Then I asked, "CAC, how did you get out of your bed?"  She gave me a very detailed explanation, I'm sure, in her jabber-talk.  Somewhere in her explanation, though, was a clear as day "Buddy [that would be big brother TLC] did it" that seemed to coincide with the action of lifting her leg up to the bar of the crib and pulling her little body up, and...well, we got the picture.

So, that was it.  No big THUD in the night, or any broken bones, thankfully.

Luckily, we happen to be prepared for transitions like this one.  That night TEC went down to the laundry room to pull out the second toddler bed that has been serving as my drying rack and we set CAC up for the night.  She seemed to be pretty excited about her new bed--knew just what to do with it and the little pillow that used to be TLC's.  It took her a little bit of time to get settled down, but once she did, she did great.

And here she is.

In the next little while, we might be shuffling the kids around a bit, getting a bigger bed for SCC, etc.  It all gets complicated.  I keep thinking that I'd like to decorate our kids' rooms, but it's hard to know what to do until we know which kids will be where and for how long...