For any of you that were worried, James survived the week. Just barely.


On MLK day, I woke up and saw a posting on Freecycle for a twin size captain's bed. (You know, the kind of bed with drawers underneath.) In my half asleep state, I stumbled into the living room and asked Ben if he thought I should try and get it. "Sure" he shrugged. We've been thinking about getting James out of the ol' crib, but haven't done anything about it. I sent an email to the owner and she picked us to have it. Yeah! But then all of a sudden I realized everything that would have to happen that day--there is no room in the apartment to store a bed of that size so that meant getting James into that bed that night.

We started having abnormally excited and enthusiastic conversations about beds in front of James. After the trap was set, we asked James if he wanted a big boy bed. (Heretofore known as the BBB.) He was excited at first, but when we told him we would go to the store and buy him new sheets and then go to Sam's club to buy a mattress he was running around the house in circles. (I'm sure that the thought of new domestic items was exciting for him but he was probably equally excited about getting a pretzel from Sam's.)

We went to Target and let him pick out sheets. He picked Spiderman. He's never seen Spiderman. We've never talked to him about Spiderman. He doesn't know who Spiderman is, but he picked Spiderman. (We might send him to live with you, Karla.) I was hoping to soften the blow (to me) of moving him to a BBB by swaddling him in some kind of baby-ish sheets, but no way. He never called it a BBB, he calls it his "Spiderman Bed."

We went to Walmart and got a rail and all the appropriate mattress coverings. Not very exciting.

We went to Sam's and before we could go get the mattress we had to have lunch at the cafe. (I use that word very loosely.) But, all of us getting lunch for $7.00 is fun and exciting. We picked out the mattress and wedged it into the minivan. All very exciting.

This story is getting too long, but if you're getting bored, just go back to facebook.

At home, James was DEVASTATED that he had to take a nap in his crib. Apparently all of our very enthusiastic brainwashing talk about BBBs should have been saved for after nap time. After naptime, Ben and James took down the crib and put it in the storeroom, sigh. (I do miss his crib, but I do NOT miss hefting the kid over the rail.)

A nice friend of ours and Ben went to pick up the bed (conveniently located on campus.) Apparently it was very heavy and could not be taken apart. Anyway, they got the bed in the room, I wiped it down ('cause I'm paranoid about things like that) and we set everything up. When it was time for bedtime, I think James was a wee bit apprehensive, but he fell asleep after a little while. I worried about him falling out of bed all night! I checked on him probably every hour on the hour all night long. Ridiculous, I know. He slept happily and beautifully, I didn't sleep at all. All week long he has done well in his new bed. My checking on him has been reduced to about 2x a night.

All in all, its been a great transition. Although he can get himself in and out of the bed, he doesn't get out until we come for him. I am DREADING the day when I feel someone watching me in my sleep and wake to find James standing at the edge of the bed staring at me. That will probably send me over the edge.