Night Night

Jeremy and I went for it and set up the toddler bed in Owen's room last night.  If you thought I would be a little sad to see the crib go into storage, you'd be right.

Ben made his way into Owen's room first. Then made a mad dash back into his room, came back into Owen's room screaming and crying because we took the side rail from his bed to put on the toddler bed. Ben is not a fan of change. Nothing new comes in to his room and nothing comes out.

I tried to reason with him. "Mommy and Daddy put that rail on your bed when you were little like Owen so you wouldn't fall out in the middle of the night. Now that you are SO big, we don't have to worry about it. Wouldn't it be sad if Owen fell out of his new bed and got hurt?"

It turns out once again;there is no reasoning with a three year old.

None.

He continued screaming and crying while trying to take the rail off of the bed. Jeremy saw the look of exasperation on my face and convinced Ben into going back into his room to talk.

I continued to get Owen ready for bed and brought him into Ben's room to say goodnight to Daddy and big brother. I was amazed at the transformation Ben had gone through. The tears were gone and in their place was a huge smile.  He gave Owen a hug and told him that he was proud of him for getting to sleep in a big boy bed. The display of affection was so sweet it brought a tear to my eye. I didn't know what was said; but mouthed the words "thank you" to Jeremy as I gave my big boy a huge hug.

Owen picked out The Very Hungry Caterpillar for his bedtime story and I rocked him a few times before he said he was ready to go night-night. I placed him on his bed, put the music box from his mobile over the rail, told him I loved him then closed the door behind me. No more than two seconds later he was at the door calling "Ma Ma".

I rocked him for another minute then tried again. He might have lasted ten seconds this time before he was at the door, crying. This repeated over and over again until I walked him over to the bed without picking him up, patted his back for a few seconds. He stayed in bed!!!! Score one for mom. It took about half an hour longer than usual, but he was snug in his bed the rest of the night.

This morning as I was coming downstairs with the boys Ben asked if he could get the Backyardigans airplane movie today. When I reminded him that we had decided to wait until his birthday before getting any new movies he burst the bubble.

"But Daddy said that I could get anything I wanted from the store today."

When all reasoning fails bribery apparently works like a charm. I wonder if Jeremy can "talk" Owen into staying in bed during nap time.