Wednesday, May 9, 2012

I Want Big Bed

Grunter is ahead of his brother when it comes to language and always has been.  W2 is catching up, but these days it really is all about the funny things Grunter is saying.

Tonight in the dark as I was saying night night:

"I want different bed."
"What kind of bed?"

"Like Mommy, Mama bed."
"A big bed?  On the floor?"
"Yeah.  With covers.  And pillows."
"Well, we can do that.  But not right now.  Right now you have your crib.  Someday you'll be too big for your crib and then we can get you a different bed.  But now you are still a baby and so you have a crib to sleep in."

Currently, this 'baby' thing works really well for them because they both ask me multiple times a day if they are a baby with W2 wanting a lot of reassurance that he is MY baby.
"I Mommy's baby?" he asks while pointing to himself with an almost anxious furrowed brow.
"Yes, you are my baby," as I pull him close.
If you are to ask either one of them if they want to be big boys or babies, they will say babies.
Fine by me.

"Blue. Blue. Blue."
"Blue?"
"I get new bed with blue."
"Oh, you want it to be blue sheets."
"Yeah.  Blue covers.  And froggy pillow."
"A froggy pillow.  OK.  Do you want some other things, like fish or boats or crabs or turtles?"
"Yeah.  Yeah!  Let's do it!  Let's do it, people!  Let's do it, Mommy!"

They are staying contained in their cribs for as long as humanly possible.  While I would much rather be done with the cribs and design their room for them, I also want to remain sane.  If I just had one, I'd say OK, let's say goodbye to the crib.  But with two.  Oh, with two, everything changes.
I am not ready to have naps dissolve into chaos with them playing and running and deliriously destroying the room--uh, actually that goes for nighttime as well.
Chicken's 'office' is in their room which presents another problem.  We have 2 dressers, 2 bookshelves, files, a rolling chair, and a tall shelf in there.  The room is not exactly 'toddler-proof-able'.  And we have never had a monitor, video or otherwise.
So, when they are let loose, it's going to be insane for awhile I'm quite sure.

They know how to climb out of the crib.  I know they can do it.  But they've never actually done it.  I see them put that leg over and give my "don't you dare" look (which is also a "Don't f*uck with Mommy" look) and that with a little "uh uh uh" is usually all it takes.  We have also lectured them for over a year about how dangerous it is for them to try to climb out and what could happen.  Yeah, we've tried to keep them in by using fear, I guess.  Whatever works.

Ah, it's almost 8:30 and I can still hear them in there singing "All Aboard the Choo Choo Train!"
I can't even imagine if they were given the freedom to sing and dance together with no crib bars.

Off to look for froggy pillows.  Maybe then they'll stop asking questions!

When did you move your twins to big beds?  How was it?


5 comments:

K J and the kids said...

As soon as they started crawling out of their cribs. I felt like the danger of them crawling out over shadowed the fact that they were tiny and in big beds.
We also bought the toddler beds that were 5 inches off of the ground :) Their transition beds. My big boys were in them at 18-20 months (?)
The littles were older...but that was only because Ryan was sleeping in bed with us every night and Nathan was in a crib in our room.

I think, if he can ask for it...and can crawl out of his crib. might be time.

My bigs were pretty darn good about staying put. The littles not as good.

Good luck !

Nadine said...

I was terrified to conver their cribs into toddler beds, they literally just started to sleep through the night(at 23 months!) and the idea of removing their little cage, terror andnot sleeping again. But then Nate started to climb out of his crib, making zero noise, so it was time. The only item left in their room is their dresser, which is strapped to the wall. They play and giggle and laugh, and they dont nap(so I don't blog), but in the night, they do sleep throguh the night(they have childproof locks on their door). So, it wasn't as bad as what I thought, but in your tight space it will be very challenging.

Strawberry said...

Curly is still in a crib. He has never climbed out of it. We've asked him before if he wants a 'big boy bed' and he's said 'no.' We see no reason to push him then...but he's definitely going to be in one by the time he's 4. I know people are already giving us funny looks! But hey...whatever works.

Anonymous said...

Hello lovely! Been reading along and so jealous of your big travels. Now, to answer your question - we moved the kids to mattresses on the floor around 12 or 13 months. It was never a problem, perhaps BECAUSE they were so young? I don't know. We put a stairgate in their doorway - I think it was awesome as we could leave their door open, but they couldn't run riot in the middle of the night. Good luck with the transition whenever you do it!!

Jen said...

I converted chunk's crib to his toddler bed about a month ago (he will be 2 1/2 next month) and it has been super successful. He loves his new bed and I love the fact that when he wakes up at 5 or 5:30am, he can now come into my room and get into my bed without me completely being awake. Heaven for this single mom. I don't think there is a magic number and it is whatever works for you as a family!