All Hail the New Crib Tent

About a week before Josie was born, Ben learned how to climb out of his crib. Ben's crib is the kind that turns into a toddler bed, so we converted it just a day or so before Josie arrived.

. . . which meant that not only has Ben been dealing with the emotional backlash of a new sibling, but he's been severely sleep deprived--climbing out of bed is SO much more fun than taking a nap. After a month of doing all the things one is supposed to do to teach them to stay in bed, I had just one (or 21) too many days of being woken up by a very-proud-of-himself toddler at 5 AM.

I put that crib right back together and got a crib tent -- and we prepared ourselves for the worst: kicking, screaming, tantrums, hitting the tent, anything, as soon as he realized he was going to be locked in.

Of course, nothing of the kind happened. When he saw the crib was back together he went up to it like an old friend. It was almost like he'd been waiting to have it back. When he saw the tent, he thought it was the best toy ever, demanded that we zip him in there and then bid us "Away!" with a summary wave of his hand. He slept incredibly soundly that night.

(Ok, he DID cry when he woke up and realized he was stuck . . . but that only lasted a day or two, and the whole household is now back to sleeping in until at least 7, and life is much much better.)