Moving on...growing up

I am moving on from my apathetic blog week....onto new and exciting things...

My little boy isn't so little as of today. :( About 30 minutes ago, after offering my usual goodnight kisses, songs and cuddles, I closed the door on his infancy. (I nearly cried as I made my way down the stairs!) Our precious son will sleep his first night in his big-boy-toddler-bed tonight. At-least that is what we hope will happen. At this moment, 35 minutes later, I have returned to his room twice to comfort him. The first time, he was just a little weepy...the second because the heater went on and frightened him. Through the monitor, I can still hear him quietly whimpering, but I am trying to refrain from going up again. It is a lot for him to handle....a big-boy bed is a big change. But while he needs to know without a doubt that I will be there in an instant if something is wrong or he is scared, he also needs to understand that his bed is a safe place and there are boundaries. So...I wait...and listen....and hope for a peaceful night's sleep for my son.

So why did we suddenly swing into action with the whole toddler bed idea you ask??? Well...we've actually been talking about it for awhile...kicking around ideas as to when or how we should embark on this new chapter. I was concerned for awhile about the whole baby-proofing thing with having him "free" and with the stairs un-gated and all. He's navigates the stairs like a pro these days, but in darkness, who knows what could happen. I knew some serious baby-proofing was in order and I just wasn't prepared yet with all the door covers and all. Until a friend suggested this week that I just use our baby gate to block off his bedroom door so that he couldn't get out should he awake. Duh! Why didn't I think of that! So simple! So this afternoon, as Ty was busily working in Luke's room (and the baby's) to install their new ceiling fans, I went to work on the gate idea. (The gate had been buried in the garage since we moved here, since, like I said, Luke is so independent on the stairs.) Once the gate was up, it just seemed natural to attempt to convert his crib to the toddler-bed mode, so I asked Luke if he'd like to try his new-big-boy-bed out tonight. He excitedly agreed, so off we went to find the tools and instructions. 30 minutes later, Ty was done with the ceiling fan and I had successfully converted his crib. Whoohoo! Here is my big boy, all excited to try out his new digs (this was taken post-bed-jumping!):


As we moved ourselves into the baby's room to work on the ceiling fan in there, I left briefly only to return to find that Luke had made himself comfy in Baby's car seat! Giggling, I asked him "And what do you think you're doing, Mister?!" He answered with a sheepish smile, "Sittin' in baby's tair (chair)." Silly boy.


Speaking of baby...one week from today will be our Gender Discovery Day! YIPPEE!!! This morning as I was sitting on the floor in front of the window to put my makeup on (as is my routine these days...standing in front of the mirror makes me feel weak and faint!), Luke came scooting up beside me with the end of a red string hooked around one ear and the other end in his hand. He gently lifted up my shirt, placed the hand-end of the string into my belly button and said, "baby heart, mama." He was pretending he had a stethoscope (remember the picture from the museum?) and was listening to the baby's heartbeat! :) Awwww! My friend Tami loaned me her ultra-sensitive Doppler thingy the other day, that allows us to listen to the baby's heartbeat, and I'm sure that's where Luke got the idea. How cute is that though!!! After he was through, I casually asked him "So Luke, do you think there is a boy baby or a girl baby inside Mommy's tummy?" His unprompted response was "Dirl (girl) baby." Good boy!!! :) Just to be fair, I asked the question the other way, saying 'girl baby' first and 'boy baby' second, thinking he might just be repeating the last thing he heard. Nope. Both times he said "dirl baby." Hmmm. Guess we'll know in less than a week now!!

Well...that is all I have time for tonight. As of the end of this post, I have only scrambled my out-of-breathe body up those stairs one more time (I heard a loud THUMP from his room and thought for SURE he'd fallen out of bed (I put a body pillow next to it, just in case) but he was still in bed...awake of-course, but IN bed. And now, all is quiet in his room. Sleep has come. Thankfully! We'll just see how the rest of the night goes! I'll leave you with this cute little shot of him climbing the ladder this afternoon to help his daddy with the handy work: (Don't worry, he was only on the second step....plenty safe!) Tootles!