As Long As I'm Living My Baby You'll Be

(Here’s Ethan sleeping in his crib a couple of weeks ago. Greg took this picture to show just how many toys our little one takes to bed with him. It’s quite unruly really… and yet he puts up such a fuss if he is missing one of his bedtime buddies. Usually he is pinned up against the railings of the crib with toys crushing him at every angle. Sweet dreams – who do you let your son sleep with?!)

My baby is no longer my baby. As a matter of fact my very tenacious two-year old has suddenly decided he wants to be a big boy. He refuses to wear anything particularly resembling a bib, won’t sit in his booster to eat anymore, is wanting to use the potty on a more regular basis than his older brother, and shock of all shocks, is finally ready to give up his crib. His beloved bed, the one we dragged across country to bring for him to have his specified slumber parties. The crib we have put away and set up a replacement toddler bed for, only to have to re-set it up to solve both my baby and his parent’s insomnia. But now, it’s down and it’s official. As Ethan so enthusiastically put it, “Bye-bye kib, bye-bye kib!” Even now as Greg and I are on our “weekend away” my Mom called to say that Ethan refused to take a nap in her crib. The moment she allowed him to get out and sleep where he wanted to, he fell quickly asleep. The boy is convinced, I guess we should all start to figure it out too.

It started a couple weeks ago when he started climbing out of his crib repeatedly. Try a dozen times at nap time and another dozen at bedtime. Two problems: a) he was getting hurt and b) he couldn’t get back in the crib on his own. This caused two immediate results a) he was beginning to despise his crib as something that caused him pain and b) I had to keep going in to put him back in his crib which would re-start the whole going down routine.

I’m sad, I have to admit. This is a big step for me as a mother. It’s slightly difficult to have another big boy sleeping in a big bed who can now wander and play and easily get out of the bedroom… but it’s harder still for me to have my baby growing up. I don’t know why it’s such a big deal. I went through this with each of my children. In fact I took joy in having to lay with them before they fell asleep for naptime. With Julia we would read “I Love You Forever” over and over at her request. With Tyler is was “Bear Wants More”. With Ethan, who is not as enthused with book-reading, we sing songs. But in my heart of hearts I am thinking, “I’ll love you forever baby; Mommy wants more!”