the escape and the big bed

Two weeks ago, we woke at 5:45 am to the sound of Cookie Monster (whose real name is Sid) singing, "C is for Cookie, that's good enough for me." I never understood what CM meant by that, but it did mean one thing: Ben had either grown twenty foot arms, or he had escaped from his crib and was playing with his Sesame Street toy. I ran to the door and opened it, and there he was, right behind the door, sitting in a pile of toys. His clothes hamper was pushed into the middle of the room. Sweaters and pajamas were strewn all over the place. The kid discovered his freedom, and he became drunk with it.

The question was now do we lock him in the crib with one of those crib tents or do we buy him a bed? After discovering that the flimsy tents costs more than a bed, we went with the bed.

The first night was pure hell. Ben ran all over his room, pulling books from the shelves, jiggling the door knob, knocking his kitchen over, throwing Weebles everwhere, etc. Ryan ended up sleeping on the hardwood floors next to the bed, a human barricade. We wondered if we should reassemble the crib. I looked up crib tents on ebay.

We stuck with the bed. The next night, Ben was trickier. He'd jump into bed before we could get the door open, and close his eyes and pretend to be sleeping. One time I watched him run and jump into the bed. He closed his eyes, and made me lift him back onto his pillow, though he and I both were fully aware that he was still awake.

The nights have gotten easier and easier, except for last night when he was sick and so tired, his tears turned to fits of hysterical laughter as he escaped at 11pm and ran down the hallway.

Other than that, he's a big boy now sleeping in his big boy bed. His 2nd birthday is Thursday and his pinata-free birthday is on Saturday. I'm so proud of him!