Toddler Upgrade

Our friends Chris and Alexa have a son named Blair who is 15 months older than Aiden. He recently moved from sleeping in a crib to a twin bed. He totally skipped the toddler bed. Chris and Alexa bought a toddler bed with all the intentions of having him move to that first. But, as it turns out, Blair would have nothing to do with it. He went straight to the adult-sized bed. So funny!

That meant, they suddenly had an extra bed in the house. Guess who got it. Aiden!! We decided to just go for the gusto and set the bed up as soon as we got it home Sunday morning. While Aiden was eating his lunch in the dining room with me, Travis upgraded his room from a nursery to a toddler room.

Blair was even willing to give up his Cars bedding that fits the bed. Thanks Blair! Aiden LOVES his little bed. He can climb in and out ALL BY HIMSELF!!

We sat him in his bed and told him it was time to settle down. We read a couple books, then asked him to lay down. He nuzzled in all comfy-cozy as we closed the door. That's where the fun ended.

He laid in bed for about 15 seconds before hopping out of bed and running to test the door. He can't open the doors in our house yet, so he was unable to escape. We heard him run back to the bed and climb in. We waited in anticipation of what he would do. After another 10 seconds, he scrambled out of bed and ran back to the door again. This time he knocked. He waited a moment, with no response, then began to play with his books. We decided to give him some time to try to work it out on his own. Unfortunately that didn't happen. We had to go in numerous times to tuck him back in bed. He pulled out a bunch of books and all the blankets from his dresser (that was a first). It was a mess.

Then we tried sitting in there with him. Travis laid in the bed with him and he seemed to relax.

After about five minutes, he was done with that. Travis and I were desperate because we really wanted him to get some rest before we went to Ariel and Robert's to watch the Super Bowl. We broke down and got out the travel crib. Aiden curled up in the that crib and fell right to sleep. Sadly, we had to wake him up two hours later so we could get on the road. He usually sleeps three hours, so that was a bit short.

In the end it, sort of worked out. We put Aiden to bed over at Ariel and Robert's so we could watch the end of the game. That meant that by the time he got home and back in that toddler bed for the night, he was out for the count. We switched his pillow case back to his old one, so he would have some reminder of his old bed. We got ready for bed, then checked on him one more time before we laid down for the night. Aiden was passed out, still in the bed.

When I got up this morning, Aiden hadn't moved. The only difference is Mr. Lion was on the floor. I was interested to see what Aiden would do when he woke up in a bed he could get out of on his own free will. Sadly, we never go to see that. He was so tired, I had to pick him up to wake him up this morning.

I'm a little nervous about how he will do tonight, since he will getting into bed before he is exhausted. The only redeeming point is it will be dark when he goes to bed. That will make it difficult for him to play with his toys and destroy his room once we close the door behind us. If he doesn't freak out about it, I might turn of his night light during this transition.

I can recall many of a night when Ariel and I would get up and play in our room after we were supposed to be in bed. Good times for us - not so much for our parents.

I was talking to a mom the other day about the crib to toddler bed transition and she said her son did really well with it because he LOVED his sheets. He didn't want to leave them. The Cars bedding doesn't have much appeal to Aiden at this point since he has never seen the movie. The question at this point, is do I buy the movie Cars or do I buy Yo Gabba Gabba sheets?