Sometime in early/mid December I woke up and heard Eli babbling. This is normal, he babbles and talks to himself for a little bit, then calls out if I haven’t come get him. So I open the door to his bedroom and he walks right by me and down the hallway.
I stood there, dumbfounded, looking at my kid, then at his crib, then back to the kid, back to the crib, trying to figure out what happened. Somehow Eli had climbed out of his crib for the first time and didn’t get hurt. It was the “didn’t get hurt” part that really surprised me. I was pretty sure he was capable of climbing out because I’ve seen him tackle things like that at the playground, I just figured he’d get hurt the first time he didn’t listen to his common sense and climbed out.
Thankfully, a friend had given us a hand-me-down toddler bed a couple months earlier (it matched our crib perfectly!!!). Shortly after receiving it, I noticed Eli straddling the crib in such a way that prompted me to buy a mattress for the bed, so we had everything we needed to move him out of the crib.
It took some creative thinking and some trial and error to fit the bed in Eli’s room, but we managed. He transitioned into the bed really easily! Andy and I struggled with it more than Eli did. We’d have a rough night and claim we didn’t want to “deal” with the bed and we’d put him back in his crib … but there really wasn’t anything to “deal” with, Eli made the transition like a champ.
One thing we quickly realized was that Eli could now play in his room as soon as he woke up and we might not know. This was the initial setup.
One afternoon I heard some quiet noises that made me think Eli had just woken up from his nap. I opened the door and discovered him STANDING on his dresser to reach the books on the top shelf (upper right corner of that picture). I removed the books immediately, but we also decided to remove the bookshelf. He could still climb on the dresser, but he didn’t have a reason to stand on it anymore.
This is the setup we ended up with. We tried to rearrange so many things in his room, but just can’t find a solution that doesn’t have his dresser next to his bed or his rocking chair. I really don’t want him climbing on the rocking chair, so we stuck with this. My biggest problem is that it doesn’t exactly fit. As you can see, the door hits the dresser. Right now I have a padded cloth to protect it, but I’d like something prettier and more secure.
December 17th. Eli enjoys playing on his bed, he thinks it’s pretty cool.
December 20th, sleeping baby.
December 22nd, playing with blankets.
January 14th. Eli tossed a few books in his crib and then climbed in the crib to read them. He has to climb on his rocking chair to get in the crib, it makes me pretty nervous.
January 24th, my adorable sleeping baby. It was a rough night, which is why his PJ’s don’t match.
March 12th. I got Eli a little toddler pillow and it took him a little while to get used to it but he likes it now.
Funny story: Earlier this week I heard Eli waking up from his nap. I entered his room and found him sitting on his dresser with an almost empty container of disposable wipes. He had opened the container and was wiping his crotch (his fully clothed and diapered crotch) with them, and then tossing them on the floor. I really hope it takes him a while to figure out how to open the cloth wipes containers!
