The Big Boy Bed

Big development at the Anderson household: the Big Boy Bed has made its arrival! Well, it actually arrived a few weeks ago, and I'm just now getting around to blogging about it. :-)

Up until recently, Weston was still sleeping in his crib, and the entire time he was in a crib, he never made a SINGLE attempt to climb out. Never!! So, there really wasn't any rush to get him into a twin bed. However, when we found out that we were expecting Baby #2, I decided that I wanted to get him out of the crib before he made the connection between Baby #2's arrival and getting kicked out of his crib. So, we decided to go for it, and we actually went all-out and just bought a detachable bunk bed. We figured that we're going to have at least 3 children, so we'll need a bunk bed someday. Might as well prepare now!

Anyway, Tim set up the bed one afternoon, and that evening, Weston familiarized himself with it:
That night, he got all snuggly and cute in his new giant bed (gun in hand, of course, in case of a home invasion):

And here he is, fast asleep (note that he's still crowded into the edge of the bed by his perma-pile of toys):

Tim and I partially expected it, but we were slightly discouraged to realize that being in a big boy bed meant freedom of mobility -- in his room AND throughout the apartment. We thought we'd curtailed this possibility when we put one of those little doorknob covers on his door so that his little toddler hands couldn't open the door. We neglected to realize that his bedroom door doesn't actually latch -- the door doesn't line up quite right with the door frame. So, even if he wasn't capable of turning the knob, he could still just pull the door open and exit his room. Every morning we'd wake up to a little person standing next to our bed, whispering, "Mommy! Wake up! Mommy! I have a sword!" And it seemed to get earlier and earlier. First it was 8 AM; then it was 7:30; then it was 7; and then it was 6:30 (AHHH!). We had to take action. (Lemme tell ya... Tim and I HATE to wake up early. Having another newborn in the house is going to be a painful adjustment, I can feel it!)

So, we put up a gate in his doorway, so that even if he opened the door, at least he couldn't get out of his room. Unfortunately, the first time we put it too low, and he climbed over it. The second time, we put it too high, and we found him like this one night:

The third time, we put it just right where he couldn't climb over it or crawl under it. But that didn't stop him from trying:

Hahaha! Fortunately for us, Tim is a genius, and he realized that if we lifted the doorknob slightly when closing the door, it would latch. Now that it latches properly, the toddler doorknob cover prevents him from pulling open the door. Phew!! I mean, I feel a little bad that he's trapped in his room, but... not really. He can play with toys in there, and even though he's potty-training right now, he wears Pull-Ups at night, so it's not like he's going to wet his pajamas.

Problem solved!!! Yay for the Big Boy Bed!