Big Boy, Big Bed

Yesterday I couldn't wait any longer, so the kids and I switched room first thing that morning. We put less girly sheets and bedskirt on Johnny's bed and took out some of the more girly pictures. We switched their clothes around and put the guard rail up on the twin bed. He took his nap that day in his new big kid bed. When Brad got home, we moved furniture around in Alex's new room and took down the crib. We split the toy shelves in half and gave half of the stuffed animals and books to Johnny and half to Alex. He had his very own big boy room now. I also took it a step further and cut the rubber tops off of all his binkis. I figured I'd be loosing sleep over him switching to a bed as well as when I took his binkis away so I might as well get them both over with at the same time. He carried them around all day saying "broke" as he held them up for all to see. I couldn't get him to throw them in the garbage though, he still wanted to hold onto them in case they could be fixed. That night, Alex was excited to sleep in her new full bed and Johnny was reluctant to go to sleep without his binki but he didn't fight it. Well around 11pm he woke up crying and pointing towards the door saying "broke, broke". He obviously wanted his binki. I left the room a few times and a few minutes later he'd be crying "broke" again. The first time I went in and asked him if he wanted to sleep in his crib (and I pointed to his playpen all packed up in the corner of his room) or his big boy bed. He pointed to his bed and went back down easily enough. The second time I asked him again and he immediately stopped crying and gave me a sheepish grin as if to say "that's a silly question, why would I want to sleep in my crib? You must be joking around." The third time I came in and set up his playpen and laid him down. He smiled and waved goodbye. He went back to sleep for the rest of the night without any problems. Maybe the bed will take some getting use to. The first thing he did this morning though was run up to the kitchen counter where I used to keep his binkis during the day and whined "broke!" over and over until I showed him that there were no binkis there and convinced him that they had been thrown away because they were broken.

Alex was in a toddler bed at 18 months and that is also when we took her binkis away. She never even asked for them. She loved her toddler bed as soon as we switched it to the "right" corner of the room which was where her crib had been. And loved her big girl bed even more when she turned 2 and we switched her over. Hopefully Johnny will soon be able to sooth himself without the comfort of a closed in crib and a binki in his mouth. He does however love the fact that he can be in that room all he wants (it used to be off limits when it was Alex's room) and he loves looking out the window at the tractor working the field out back.