Penny and her bed: A love story

One thing I've never understood that parents do all the time, is switching their kids to a toddler bed when they are doing just fine in their crib. I guess I'm more of  'If it ain't broke, don't fix it' parent when it comes to that sort of thing. Now I know there are lots of parents out there who had to switch beds earlier then they wanted because of climbing, falling, pain-in-the-butt issues, and I feel for them. But my kids only tried that a few times, and I guess I beat them into submission or something because it never became a problem.

My reluctance with switching them always stemmed from naptime shenanigans. I figured once they could get out of their beds easily, and they had the light of day to see things with, that naptime would become party time, and I wasn't ready to deal with that yet. But about a month and a half or so ago, the kids just stopped napping and I stopped forcing them to be in their beds for mommy time. Instead, I tell them that mom needs an hour of mommy time and that if they bother me or start fighting then they have to go up to their cribs. And it worked. (Remember that whole 'I'm a mean mom' post?)

Since then the kids have become experts at climbing in and out of their cribs, and it started to seem ridiculous that they were still in these things. So I started pushing for the toddler bed, going against my natural instinct to be a lazy parent. But the kids WAY resisted, which I found surprising. I pointed out their friends toddler beds, I pointed to big kid beds in books, I talked it to death. But they still didn't budge. But somehow Jamie talked to Penny about it at bedtime this week, and she decided to make the switch. She's definitely not a daddy's girl or anything...

I really think waiting til your kid is ready is the best answer in a lot of situations. So far it's worked for us with potty training and now the bed thing. And now that I'm done patting myself on the back, it's time for pictures!

The painting my friend Laurie did for us, on the night I went to the hospital, the day before they were born. I love it. When we move, I want to figure out how to cut it out of the wall, I'm sure it's easy to do.

Notice the teeth marks on the left side of the crib. Penny is half beaver apparently.

Last (only?) picture next to her crib. She was so excited!

'Helping' dad. I helped by sitting on the floor and taking pictures.

Getting a close-up look at her new bed.

Harrison takes advantage of the cup-swiping potential of the lack of bars.

She loves it!

And she really loves it once she figures out how much easier it is to jump on the bed now.

The many faces of Harrison. He has no interest in giving up the crib. My old goal was Kindergarten for him, perhaps I should change it to first grade. Or prom.

You can't tell but he is shaking his head no after we asked him for the millionth time if he wants to change his bed.

Job well done daddy! Except for after this picture he started to tell Penny that 'Now you can get out of bed and get books whenever you want to,' but I had to sweep the legs and knock him to the ground about midway through the sentence and stop him before he says something I'll really regret. I finished the sentence for him by telling her she could get out of bed ONE time to get a new book, and the divorce papers that had magically popped out of thin air onto the floor disapearred. That was a close one.