Toddler Tribute

My little man has graduated to a new stage. Last week he moved from his crib up to a "toddler bed." We had tossed around the idea of jumping to a twin bed and using side rails, but we haven't yet found one we like so we just decided to buy some time.


This story comes from last Wednesday... On some errands that morning I picked up the bed and an additional mattress. Alan was hard at work on the new privacy fence in the backyard so I broke down the crib and moved it over to Adam's room. I was so excited to finally instate my new monkey-themed crib bedding and finalize the room's decor. Meanwhile, I also cleaned the carpet and rearranged Aaron's room to accommodate the new bed.


Alan came in from working with about twenty minutes to spare before Aaron's bedtime. I tried to speed the construction process by laying out the fifty-some-odd bed pieces and looking over the instructions in advance. That didn't help me much... I was a little frazzled from hurrying through my afternoon and evening checklist and caused us to have to do almost everything twice in order to get it right.


I gave Aaron a quick shower... yes, he takes showers now (another bib-boy thing), and he and Daddy drank milk and ready a story while I put new sheets on the bed and got it ready. Adam was crying for his next meal already so, I carried Aaron into his room (as I do every night) and Alan was holding Adam to calm him down. I bent over to lay Aaron in his new bed and then it hit me. I began crying as I told him goodnight and that I love him, and he returned the sentiment.


I barely made it out of the room before I started sobbing, uncontrollably. My little man is growing up. He is no longer a baby, but he's still my baby boy. Everything happened so fast that evening that I had no time to consider what was actually happening. In the big scheme of things it is a minor event, but these boys and their hundreds of "minor events" are my life now and so that mixed with the lovely nursing hormones... I was a wreck. I was immediately reminded of a cartoon I once saw and understood only to a certain degree at the time. Needless to say, I get it now.


Alan was there, as always, to convince me that he was okay and assure me, in so many words, that he would not be leaving for college in the morning. Then he handed me Adam and said, "this one is still pretty little."


Aaron's first night went great. I was expecting the worst, you know, him getting out of his bed several times in the night to freak out or play or something. But he didn't, he slept, a lot as it turned out. We had to wake him up for the first time in a few weeks. So naturally, we documented...


The video is a little dark and quiet, but hang in there, it is slightly amusing and accurately displays Aaron's enjoyment of his new bed. (Remember "mass" means "please").

Naps are a tiny bit shorter than they used to be, but thankfully are still happening and he is content to play a little bit until I am ready to go get him. The only downside, which we anticipated, is that he is waking up earlier and my morning "me time" is nearly gone.