Toddler Bed

Last week, during the awful heat-wave, we ended up for a few hours one day at Ik*a just to experience air conditioning. We walked out with a toddler bed. We'd taken a leisurely tour through the showroom and all three of us ended up loving the 570 sq.ft. NYC-style apartment, complete with a room for a toddler. It got us (well, me) dreaming again of living there one day--not the store, but NYC.

Once it cooled down and we could sleep upstairs again, Ted set up Abe's bed in his room. This is Abe upon first waking up in his new bed after the first night:


Pretty cute, right? For the first few days, we had no problems. Abe jumped right in for every nap and every night-time. He never got out. Like most big transitions for Abe, it was easy-breezy.

All that ended last night.

Since getting his new bed, he's only wanted Daddy to put him down at night. I'm guessing it's a guy thing? I brush his teeth, put on pjs, etc, but Ted is the one that he wants to take him upstairs. So last night, the guys went upstairs and I turned on the second half of the netflix "watch instantly" movie that I'd been watching in stages, Ten Things I Hate About You (this summer, for whatever the reason--maybe the heat, I've had mental energy for teen comedies and not much else). After about twenty minutes, I heard the "thump, thump, thump" of Abe running around upstairs. I looked up and there he was, standing at the top of the stairs, peering down at me between the bars of his cage...um, I mean, the baby-gate that we have in his doorway, smiling hugely.

I tried to sound really strict, telling him to go back to bed. I then walked around the corner where Ted and I stood there whispering about how adorable he looked standing there looking down at us, how hard it is to be mad at him. Five minutes later, I hear the little jingle of him pushing the buttons of his Peter Rabbit book, you know, the kind with sound effects. Good thing he hasn't learned outright sneakiness yet because Ted then headed upstairs to consistently and silently put him back into bed every time he got out, Jo "Supernanny" Frost style.

Eventually, he fell asleep. Lately, before I go to bed myself, I've been stepping over the gate into his room and watching him sleep. He's remarkably beautiful in those moments. Most sleeping kids are. But this is my sleeping kid, and I've been sleeping really soundly lately after these little glimpses of him all secure in his big-boy bed, behind the gate, caged in nice and tight.