Its hump day. Now, don't get excited. I just mean its the middle of the week.

I forgot to mention something that happened last Friday. Both kids were absolutely exhausted after the big weekend and sometimes kids who are tired can be the hardest to get to go to bed. Well Princess headed off to Kinder in the afternoon and DW tried to settle Little Man. But he was too tired. He yelled and screamed and climbed out of the cot. Yes, he climbed out of the cot. On his own. This means the cot is no longer an effective "baby jail". Well, that's what we thought at first. It turns out he was so upset that he still hasn't realised that he can actually do it. Its been a few days now and he still hasn't tried it again. He still doesn't want to go to bed, but at least he stays there.

There are lots of hurdles in the raising of kids. Perhaps I should call them milestones. Cutting teeth, sleeping through the night, toilet training and eating solid foods are just a few. Another "milestone" is the rite of passage for each child as they grow out of the cot and find themselves in a "big" bed. Little Man is on the cusp of that transition. As soon as the baby jail stops working, its time for a bed. We had hoped he would last until he turned two, which is when Princess graduated, or was released, or whatever. The problem is that he is considerably bigger than she was at the same age. He is also every bit as adventurous, if not quite as loud. Or perhaps "constantly loud" is more accurate. Either way, because he was so much bigger, and Princess had damaged the springy stuff the mattress sits on in the cot, we replaced it with slats. This has worked extremely well, but it did mean the base was a little higher to start with.

Here is my dilemma. I can remove the base and reset it much lower, but we still have to get Little Man in and out, so that would make it harder on us. We could wait and see if he figures it out again, but let's face it, I'll be lucky if he waits until the weekend. We could lower the base a little, but if he knows how to get out, that will not be enough. Lastly, we could start the whole "big" bed transition. The big bed transition starts with just a mattress on the floor, so its not hard to set up. Its just bloody hard to convince a little kid who doesn't want to go to bed, to stay on a mattress. Or a bed for that matter. It took months of battling with Princess to get her to manage it. Still, it could be that we have an advantage this time that we didn't have last time. Little Man loves copying Princess. So much so that he loves getting into her bed, our bed or any bed and pretending to be going to sleep, just like Princess.

We would still like to wait until he turns two so we will probably only start the transition early if he starts climbing out of bed. The only trouble is, its like a switch. Once he flicks it, there's no turning it off, without undue effort. So I guess this weekend I'll be lowering the base and hoping for the best. Wish us luck.

Ciao!

Thought for the Day: There may be more than one way to skin a cat, but there is really no good way to put it back together after.