Big Boy Bed

When we got home from our wonderful time at the cottage, we began to quickly feel a bit overwhelmed by the projects that we want/need to complete before baby girl’s arrival. We need to fix up her room which we have been using largely for storage. This means we have to find other places for the stuff that was in her room, or we have to sort & purge it. We have been in this house just over 2 years. It is a wonderful house and so much bigger than any of our previous apartments, yet I am amazed at how quickly with children we feel like we are outgrowing it! Then there’s our little closet issue. About two weeks before hubby left for his trip, I had sorted my clothes and boxed up all my things that I can’t possibly wear while pregnant. I stacked them on the shelf in our closet. Hubby warned me that perhaps that was too much weight on the shelf. I assured him that if the shelf started to look strained, I would move them. During those two weeks things appeared fine, so after he left, my son and I headed out to visit family. When we returned home from my parent’s house, it was to discover that our whole closet system had collapsed and was sitting on the floor. My mom was visiting, so she & I emptied the closet, then I called a friend whose husband had just returned from a similar trip, and he came over and put the now rather bent shelf back up, reinforcing it in places. We were almost finished re-hanging the clothes when pop-pop-pop out began to pop the nails holding it up. We again emptied the closet and I called another friend who had construction experience. He came over and put the shelf back up, and this time when I re-hung the clothes, they stayed – for 48 hours. Then pop-pop-pop out came the nails again. I think the closet system was just too badly damaged in the fall to be much good. This time I ran down to the garage, found some boards to prop the closet system up until hubby came home and left it. It remains that way today and guess where all the clothes that are supposed to be in the closet are – why in baby girl’s room of course. Yesterday we went to Lowe’s to look at closet systems. I think we’re going to redo it with something a bit more sturdy that is designed to handle more weight. Of course, there are also the landscaping and garage projects that I won’t even go into (Do all homeowners feel this way?) – regardless, you get the idea that returning home to our projects was at first a bit overwhelming and quite a change from our peaceful mountain getaway.

When we got home, we set to work and got a couple things accomplished, but soon abandoned our projects for a trip to the pool. That may sound rather counter-productive, but it refreshed us and enabled us to take one thing at a time. Feeling greatly relaxed, we returned home. Hubby told our son several times how proud he was of him for all the ways he had grown up while he was gone, what a big boy he had become, and what a big helper he had been since hubby had come home. With that in mind, hubby promised him a big-boy surprise that evening. You could see the interest in Bugster’s eyes as hubby prepared his surprise – we moved the crib out of his room and a twin mattress and box-springs in. I was a bit nervous about this transition as my son seemed to gain comfort from the confinement of his crib, but since it was presented in such a positive manner, he glowed with pride that now he was a big boy. He has shown no desire to go back! The first night he actually fell right asleep and stayed in his bed until we went to get him up in the morning. He awoke before we got him, and we found him in his bed looking at books. In the couple nights and naps since then, he has started testing the limits on whether he really has to stay in bed, but we’ve expected that. Thankfully we were able to make this transition before hubby’s work schedule started to get too intense again, so if we loose some sleep, it’s not such a big deal. As I look at my son though, it seems like just yesterday that he was born and now he is looking like such a grown up little boy. I know that in no time baby girl will be here, and then she too will be growing up just as fast. I am so grateful that while the time seems to pass so much more quickly than it used to, I get to be here for every day of it, and not miss out on the changes both small and large.