I knew the day would eventually come but I was hoping it would be a few more months down the road but it didn't wait, it happened Thursday morning. Thursday was starting out like any other morning and then I heard it "the crash" it luckily wasn't "the thud" I had feared it would be, you know the sickening "thud" of head connecting with concrete, but none the less it was enough of a noise for me to realize instantly that Caleb had climbed out of his crib. I immediately jumped up out of bed and ran to his room where I was greeted by a little boy walking toward me, not standing up in his crib with his arms outstretched for me to pick him up but instead outstretched arms of a little boy standing on the ground shaking because he had just fell out of his crib. He amazingly wasn't hurt and must have instead somewhat lowered himself down out of his crib vs. tumbling out. From the best I can tell he landed on his toy lawnmower that was off to the side of his crib. Poor little guy he really didn't cry long but was just shaking a little and kept saying "fall, foot, hurt". We decided immediately that we didn't want to give him a second chance to try his escape act as we worried the next fall might be a bit worse since the floor in his room is stained concrete. So, when David got home that night he converted Caleb's crib into a toddler bed. The first thing Caleb did when he climbed up into his new bed was grab a hold of the shorter toddler rail and attempt to hold onto it and jump up and down as he has done a million times. He was sadly a little confused as he learned this no longer worked.
I've been very worried about moving Caleb out of his crib as I have had visions of him roaming around his room all night or us wearing a path in the floor from the numerous times of going back and forth to his room and putting him back into bed but he has surprised us and is really doing a great job with the change in routine. The first night we put him in bed we talked with him about how he needed to stay in bed, how he was sleeping in a big boy bed, etc. After reading a couple books and going through our night time routine David laid him in his bed and we both ran to our room to watch his reaction in the baby monitor. Caleb sat there a few minutes and then climbed out of bed and went to his door (yes, we are mean parents and had shut the door to his room and since he currently can't turn the door knob he was stuck). He ended up crying a few minutes and then walked back over to his bed and climbed up into it. He tossed and turned for a little while, threw his blankets around and then climbed back out of bed and walked over to his door. He cried just a little while and then climbed back up into his bed. It was the saddest but sweetest thing to watch put we were so proud of him. The whole process only took about 10 minutes. He ended up falling a sleep for an hour then woke up and got out of bed. I ended up caving and went in and got him and hugged him and put him back in bed where he stayed until morning. So far it is turning out to be a pretty smooth transition. As far as we know he isn't getting up in the middle of the night and it doesn't appear that he is messing with any of the toys in his room after we put him to bed. Tonight David actually was able to put him in bed and he went to sleep without getting up. We are so proud of him. I think this has been one of the harder milestones as he just seems so big now. What happened to the little guy that I swear we just brought home from the hospital?
A little Father/Son tag team action
Viola! Proud of your finished product.
Caleb enjoying one of the various activities set up for the kids.
Some of our group letting lose and getting their groove on.
Team Cameron!
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