*Sniff* TODDLER BED!!

Milestone ALERT: Jake is now in a toddler bed. It all happened so fast. I put Jake down a little early for his nap this afternoon, b/c I had to go to one of those "pampered chef" type parties, so I was trying to help Chris out by going on and putting Jake down for his nap (today was Chris' first time alone with both boys). I kissed Chris - and was out the door. 30 minutes into my "party", I get a text from Chris that said that the second I walked out the door Cole started screaming and that Jake has already climbed out of his crib 5 times!!! What?!?!?! So, I get home - and Chris was telling me all about it .... how he started feeding Cole once he started crying - and all of a sudden, Jake came around the corner, smiled, waved, and said, "hi daddy" and then went and sat on the couch like they were going to hang out - haha :-) Apparently, Chris put him back in his crib .... and this pattern continued 4 more times until I guess Jake finally fell asleep. Once Jake woke up, he was able to show me how he climbed out of his crib - and I knew that I didn't want a broken arm (I have to admit Jake is very clever and creative, though), so we went on and made Jake's crib into a toddler BED!! A BED! That's a huge step! I was hoping to keep Jake in his crib ..... at least until he was 13 and would WANT to sleep in :-) Jake loves his crib and loves being in it - and when he does wake up in the morning and after nap, just likes to chill and read and play, so.... it will all be interesting now. Tonight, Jake wanted me to sit in the bed with him while I read to him (not in the rocking chair) ..... and no "dropping" him into his crib like we've done now for 2 years! I kissed him goodnight - we exchanged our "i love yous" and out of his room, I went. I asked Chris how long he thought until Jake appeared - Chris said 5 minutes - Jake appeared 1 minute later. I escorted him back to his BED (i keep wanting to say crib), came back out to the living room .... and again the big boy appeared. Chris and I were trying really hard to keep from laughing. Anyway, after I escorted him back, I then heard him playing with a toy, so I went back and stood in the doorway and just pointed to his BED, which he got back into, and then POINTED!!! I didn't react .... and this routine kept up about 3 times until I decided that he could just play with that toy, b/c he was now just thinking it was a game. He played with it for about 3 minutes, then got back in his bed - and that was that. I think he may have appeared 1 more time, but Jake did not fall asleep until 9:45pm, but after 8:30pm - never came back out. So, all in all - I would say it was a successful first night. We'll just see what the morning brings ......

Oh yes....and here are some pictures from the transformation this afternoon. Jake was putting everything into his "new bed" - which made for a lot of clean up BEFORE bed, but you could tell he was so proud. Now, if we could just work a little harder on breaking the pacifier habit ..... The last picture shows the precious, big boy out for the count and sound asleep - until morning, I hope :-)