Two Steps Forward, One Step Back (Part 1)

Last week was spent trying to make some forward progress on two fronts: getting Spike to stop dropping food/utensils/cups/plates/bowls from his high chair, and attempting the transition from crib to big boy bed.

I'm writing today's post at 1:38pm, one hour after I began putting Spike down for his nap, to the sound of him hollering from his...crib. Today is a one step back day.

My parents got Izey a toddler bed for Christmas and it is pretty stinkin' adorable. It really looks like an over-sized doll bed. Because our little two bedroom condo has been on the market since August and we've had all of TWO showings, our boys are going to have to share a room. Space being a premium, the tiny-ness of this bed is its best quality.

See, the room doesn't really even look crowded!

We didn't have room in our car on our way home from Michigan for both our son and his new bed, so after some debate, we decided to leave the bed at my parents'. Last weekend, they were super grandma and grandpa and drove it down to Chicago. They also helped rearrange the room, set up the bed, go through our overflowing storage locker, transport a TV armoire, and the best part of all--took a HUGE carload of crap home to keep in their overflowing storage room for us. (THANK YOU, MOM AND DAD!)

Anyway, we spent the first few days pumping Isaac up for the transition: "Isaac, look at your cool new big boy bed! Soon you get to sleep in there! Isn't it awesome!?" He liked it right away and played on it a lot.

"I love my new bed!"

A few days later we decided to attempt the switch. We talked to him about it while we read him some books and were all smiles when we tucked him in it for the first time. He was too, and his expression said, "Are you guys serious about this?" But as soon as we turned to leave the room, he let out a nervous whine that turned into crying as we closed the door. Ten seconds later it was quiet except for the "patter, patter" of little feet running over to the door, which he proceeded to bang on. We went back in, tucked him in again, and repeated that scene three times before Spike fell asleep in his bed. Not bad!

The trend so far has been that when Zach is home, we can take turns tucking Izey back in until he goes to sleep. We haven't had to do it for more than three times in a half hour, even at nap time. A couple of times we didn't have to go back in at all. Last night I thought we were done with the crib forever, but today Isaac just played and played for more than an hour before I finally put him back in his crib. Each time I've been alone with him, for whatever reason, he keeps getting up again and again. I think I treat him exactly the same as Zach does when I put him down, but for whatever reason, he doesn't stay put when Momma's the tucker-inner.

"Hey you, get back in there!"

I'm not too stressed about it. I think if I'm just consistent eventually he'll learn. We have five weeks until I'm due and even then Isaac doesn't need to be completely out of the crib. We're planning on Thor sleeping in our room for a little while at first. Spike is pretty young to be making this transition at all, so I'm not surprised or worried that it's a little hard.

The good news for today is that in the time it took me to write this post, he did finally fall asleep. Unfortunately, it was back in his crib.

Tomorrow I'll report on the dropping...and on that front, there may be some frustration!