"All Done Crib"

As stated by Orin after waking up from his first nap in his new toddler bed. We have finally transferred Orin from sleeping in his crib to a toddler bed - and we did it without any screaming, Elmo sheets, bribes, hiding of the crib, or talk of being a "big boy now". Not that I'm bragging! :-) Actually, it has nothing to do with us, but it's all about what a great, easy-going child he is. We've been wanted to do it for a while, but we've been waiting for some stuff to be cleared out of his room so we had room for a bed. Although he's been sleeping in the pack-n-play in the laundry room during the night (so he doesn't get woken up as we work on training Micaiah to sleep through the night), we figured we should start naps in the toddler bed so he'll be used to it as soon as we have Micaiah on a good schedule. On a side note, this child can sleep anywhere...from a laundry room, to a bedroom closet during a trip to Florida this summer to a bathroom. Anyway, on Sunday, after just missing getting a free toddler bed off of freecycle (darn!) we went to Walmart and bought one. We mentioned to him that he was getting a new bed, and even bought him a pillow and told him it was "his pillow" but he really didn't seem to get it. When we got home he had fun "helping" Damien put it together - but he still didn't realize what it was, he just likes helping daddy. But once it was assembled and he could see that it was a bed, he got a huge smile on his face and got very excited. He grabbed his passy's (he likes to sleep with two - one his his mouth and the other(which he calls "other passy") in his his hand). He didn't even want us to read or sing to him in the rocker as usual. So we just knelt by the bed and sang the usual "Jesus Loves Me". We walked out and he feel asleep soon after (I know because there is a pretty big gap under the door to his room and I can put my head on the floor and see him in the bed; who knew it would come in so handy!) His nap on Monday wasn't quite as easy (which was partly my fault since I let him fall asleep in the car for a little bit). I think he was so excited to be in his room, alone, that he spent some talking taking the books off of his shelf and reading them. I went in a couple of times and let him know that it was time for his nap and led him back to bed. But I didn't want to push him having to stay in bed. At this point, we know he'll go to sleep when he's ready. What finally worked is to lay my head on the bed with him in it and sing a quick "Jesus Loves Me". Last night we let him fall asleep in the the bed but then transferred him to the laundry room later that night. Today worked pretty much the same. After putting him down, I heard him up and about 5 minutes later. When I went in he had pooped (which happens about 80% of the time after putting him down for a nap). So after a quick change and song, he's now been sleeping soundly for about 3 hours. Most likely by this weekend Micaiah and Orin will be roommates!

Before helping daddy Orin enjoyed reading all of the books on his bookshelf.

Orin was "helping" Damien by running in and out of all the slats.

Any time Orin sees multiple, similar, items he likes to count them.


Micaiah enjoyed watching all of the activity from his jumper.


Often when Orin wakes from a nap - and sometimes before - he pulls all of the books out of a bin he can reach from his crib and reads them (which is great because I'm all for anything that gives me a little extra time to get things done!) He decided to have one last go of it.


As soon as the bed was finished Orin grabbed his passys and blanket and jumped right in!