The big boy bed

Some people often profess their worry that their children will still be in a crib when they head off to college.  I  had reason to believe this would actually be true for Jack.  Jack loves his crib.  Not once has he tried to get out of it.  It's his happy place.  He has his animals, his blankie, his books and his water.  What more does a boy need?

We toyed with the idea of getting a bed for Jack last year so we wouldn't have to buy a second crib for the Deuce.  We fortunately wised up, realizing that with a newborn in the house, we didn't need to have a mobile 2 year old at bedtime.  Looking back at that foolish idea, I laugh.  It's been enough of a struggle the past two weeks trying to convince him that he wanted a big boy bed that I can't imagine what it would have been like a year ago. 

The week after Christmas we took Jack "bed" shopping.  Naturally, he wanted a set of bunk beds.  I cannot remember now what ridiculous lie we must have told to dissuade him from that idea, but it worked.  I also scored some car and truck sheets which seemed to do the trick.

Like all rule-following first children, Jack has never gotten out of bed to play or engage in other forms of nocturnal mischief.  The irony is that most people keep the crib in the room to deter their children from getting out (i.e. "If you get out of your bed, you'll have to go back in the crib").  This doesn't work so well when your child actually prefers the crib.  In fact, he tried to take us up on our offer.  We finally had to remove the crib so he wouldn't continue to pine away for it.

Seeing him all curled up in that gigantic bed made my heart hurt. Just like so many other mundane things, the transition to a big boy bed was yet another reminder that my baby isn't a baby anymore.  Then again, now that he has a real bed, I can get in and snuggle with him before he goes to sleep.  And that makes up for everything else...