So last week was John's birthday (yay! Can anyone say 'terrible 2s?' That's kind of like saying World War II was a border skirmish) and he got some sweet presents from G&G Weist as well as Aunt Hilary. We've now got a couple more cool books to keep him quiet at church (something I'm sure the rest of the congregation will be thrilled at) and John had the grand experience of blowing out his own candles for the first time. (We had to re-enact that part over & over & over... sigh, I have to remember that he's a boy and will always think that fire is cool). And in return for the awesomeness that was his birthday (that's funny, my spellchecker didn't mark awesomeness as an incorrect word) John decided to show his appreciation by suddenly turning into a monkey and attempting to climb on every available surface in our apartment.
It started when he got a time-out and I put him screaming into his crib. After about 20 seconds the screaming stopped and I was mid-way through asking Michael, “Did that sound like a door opening?” when the plonking of 2-year-old feet was heard banging down the hall and a little head popped around the corner. We were so shocked we couldn't even be mad at him, and instead got the video camera and made him re-enact the escape.
Apparently he learned to pull himself up to the top rim, balance somewhat precariously while he swung his legs over, then slowly lower himself until he was low enough to plop down to the ground. The whole exercise took him about 8 seconds. I noted while watching this escapade that “he's going to topple over and fall right on his head” which is exactly what he did the next time he tried it during his afternoon nap. That's one major problem with having tile floors everywhere. Ouch.
Unfortunately the large purple goose-egg on his forehead did nothing to deter his enthusiasm for this endeavor because I woke that night at 2am to the pinging of DVDs on the ground next to our bed. The little goober had climbed out of his crib, retrieved a DVD from our room, taken it out to the living room to try to watch it, climbed up on a table and took a picture frame from a shelf on the wall, and who-knows-what-in-the-world-else-he-did or how long he had been awake at all!!!!! And because he was having so much fun climbing everywhere he decided the next day to climb on the kitchen counter to retrieve snacks from a shelf that's about parallel with my head.
Of course he didn't know how to get back in his crib or get down from the counter, so needless to say we've been a bit worried about the little monkey's safety. So, back to my main point at the beginning of this post, which was about John's birthday... the main present he got from mom & dad came 2 days after his birthday when we took a trip out to Ikea and bought him a big-boy bed.
He has been excited for naps and bedtime ever since and takes up chanting “new bed! new bed!” at regular intervals. He still gets up and plays for a while sometimes, but at least he can get himself back into bed when he gets tired (which, since he turned 2 is, basically, never).
Oh, and Emily is growing like a weed (6 weeks old and finally fitting in 0-3month clothes instead of just newborn stuff) and, of course, she is just as beautiful as ever.
Wow, Erin--I can really sympathize. We have to lock Luke in at night and hope he can't get into too much trouble in his room. We know he'll at least get into less trouble there than he will wandering the house in the middle of the night. A big boy bed is the next step--but I don't think he'll stay in that, either. Generally he runs around his room until he tires himself out and falls asleep on the floor with his little fingers sticking out from under the door. Two-year-olds are hard!
ReplyDeleteNow you'll understand why your Mom & Dad have grey hair after living through 4 little 2-year old boys. We used up all the available gray matter in our brains trying to outsmart inventive little boys.
ReplyDeleteGood luck!
You were so smart to go to a toddler bed. We still have Luke in a crib. A couple of days ago when I was trying to get him down for a nap, he climbed out of his crib, but didn't come downstairs. He just sat there and cried. I thought he was just mad at me for putting him back in bed for the third time that afternoon, but before long I could tell he was hurt. He wouldn't use his left arm at all and I was sure he had broken it falling out of the bed. Turns out he dislocated his elbow as he did that lovely hanging by his fingernails maneuver that you described John doing. It took us an hour and a half at the urgent care, but he's back to his antics now, of course.
ReplyDelete