Escape Artist

Last night was a night I knew would one day come, but I was still unprepared for it. Bill and I had talked about how it would come, what we would do, how cute it would be...

Yes, my son, Little Dude, can climb out of his crib.

Around bedtime last night, Little Dude decided to not let us brush his teeth, so we had to hold him down to do it and thus he lost his bedtime story as a result. (Yes, we warned him that would happen if he didn't open his mouth, but he still didn't) So, off to bed he went, screaming like a banshee and crying about wanting to still play.

We, foolish parents, thought nothing of it, figured he was over tired, and would fall asleep after crying for a bit.

Instead, we heard the screaming get louder, a little thud, and realized he was at the door of his bedroom, trying to open the door. GOOD LORD HE'S FREE flashed through my head.

Then, Bill and I realized he wasn't coming out of his room. Why? We went to investigate and realized that in his struggle to open his door, he had somehow LOCKED IT.

OH GOOD LORD HE LOCKED HIMSELF IN HIS ROOM IN THE DARK.

After a few minutes of us trying to stay calm while he cried on the other side, we finally got him to unlock the door. And after snuggling with us for awhile til he calmed down, we tried putting him back in his crib-to which he let us know THAT was NOT going to happen!

Our other option? To put him in the big bed that is in my office, which is also JR's room. He LOVED that idea, so off we went, putting him in the bed, arranging pillows around him like a protective barrier, because, you know, pillows will stop a 27 pound toddler from rolling off. Right? Anyways, we got him all situated, put his friends, his music box and special blanket with him.

And though he seemed peachy good and content in there with his brother, all Bill and I could think of was how many ways he could cause trouble with his FREEDOM.

My computer!
The pens!
My work notebook!
His Brother!!
Is he going to draw on the walls with my pen?
Knock over the computer monitor?
Climb into his brother's crib?
WAKE his brother?
Open a window? (they were locked, but for all we knew we had Houdini on our hands here)
Open a door? (same as above)
Get into the fridge?
Get stuff on my work papers?
Put stuff in his brother's crib?

GOOD LORD!! The possibilities for trouble!!

Needless to say, us parents didn't sleep so well, because at every noise we woke up convinced our toddler was up to something. Much to our joy though, Little Dude stayed in the big bed, got into nothing, and sleep like a lump on a log.

So today, I will be working on the bedroom set ups and trying to figure out what will be best and then taking a nap, because I need it.

Oh my...how am I going to get Little Dude to nap? Uh oh...