Big Boy

When we returned from our trip to Florida, Joseph went back to sleeping in his crib just fine. We had been storing his toddler bed in his room too, which meant the room was getting rather crowded. One day, a few weeks ago, I was making a crib sheet for Ashley's baby shower, and needed to use Joseph's mattress as my test subject. When I threw all of his blankets and animals out of the crib, he immediately gathered them up and placed them on the toddler bed (sans mattress) and tried to "go nitey-nite." 

I asked him if he wanted to sleep in his big boy bed that night, to which he emphatically said "oh sure, yes!" (a very common phrase these days). So that night we set up his bed, tucked him in, put the child proof handle on his bedroom door, and he slept fine in his toddler bed. Since we knew he was ok with either, but the clock was already ticking on how much longer he could stay in the crib before we needed it upstairs, we opted just to take apart the crib and set up his room with the toddler bed. He's been great ever since, and although he'll spent a lot of time playing in bed and talking before he falls asleep, once he wakes up, he doesn't get out of his bed. I guess it's a throwback to our rules in Destin that he call out for someone to come get him, so every morning (and afternoon) he'll toss everything off his bed and call out, "hi mommy" or "hi daddy" until we come get him. Usually he's just sitting on his pillow, waiting patiently for us!

 He does seem to love the new bed, though, and by his own choice is usually hopping into it after one or two books, a drastic change from the extended reading he'd often ask for when it was time to sleep in his crib. Since we're going to be taking the glider, ottoman and side table out of his room soon too, I decided his books needed a new place to be stored, where he could hopefully see them better. Usually they end up in haphazard piles on the side table, where he can barely reach the top. I bought a double towel bar holder at IKEA during Thanksgiving, fully intending on completing this project months ago, but you know how that goes.

So Memorial Day weekend I set out to make the book sling, and it didn't take very long at all. I luckily managed to have enough duck canvas left over from the car caddies I made Joseph and Ethan at Christmas, and combined it with some additional scrap fabric for his letters. The hardest part was patiently sewing the letters on, so I could practice my applique skills.

He loves that he can see the books, and actually is getting better about putting them back in the sling when he's done. I've got a kid-sized upholstered rocking chair that is stripped down and waiting to be recovered that we'll put in his room for his reading corner, and hopefully it won't be too horrible of a transition losing the big glider chair to his baby sister's room!