BIG BOY bootcamp...

Friday night we went to swim and eat with Trav's family, and on the way home he randomly asked if I wanted to go look for mattresses/big boy bed stuff for Colby on Sunday. At first I said sure! I love a day of shopping for new stuff with the fam, but almost immediately after that my mind starting going crazy. Wait! Does that mean you want to change his crib into a big boy bed on Sunday?!?? Soon I was a little angry. What do you mean? Why would we do that? He's perfectly happy and fine in his crib! He loves it, I love it- everyone loves it so why would we change that??? I thought we were going to get rid of the paci first...

Then T (aka: the voice of reason in this particular circumstance) asked

Didn't Dr. Kastner say we needed to do both of these things now?

me: ummmmm....yes

T: Didn't you say you wanted to do it this summer while you weren't working?

me: maybe......

After thinking long and hard about it and sleeping on it, I woke up in a totally different mood. If we were going to do this, I just wanted to get it over with! I talked to Colby all morning Saturday about how he was such a big boy now and that he didn't need his paci anymore, but there were some other babies who needed them. We decided it would be a good idea to give one paci to baby Pierce and one to baby Charli. The mommy in me knew that I really needed to drive to the Williams and Hubble homes to hand over a paci so he would really understand, but the Saturday laziness in me decided that we could get away without all of that. We ran to Wal-Mart to get a "big boy surprise" since he was a big boy now, and we walked away with a Mater pillow, toy firetruck and big boy underwear (no, he is not potty trained, but we're ready when he is).

When it was finally time for a nap, I read to him and rocked him, laid him down and he immediately started SCREAMING....like he was in pain kind of screaming...."MOOOOOMMMMYYYYYYYY!!!!" over and over and over again. I originally told myself that I'd wait 30 minutes and then go in and try to console him...hoping he'd wear himself out, but after about 5 minutes, I decided that 10 minutes would be long enough. There's no way I could just sit there by myself listening to him cry much longer. After 10 minutes, I went in and tried to get him to lay down so i could pat his back, but he insisted that I rock him, so i did. It didn't take him long to fall asleep, so I transferred him to his bed and he was fine. He only slept about an hour, but that's better than nothing.

Round 2: That night, Trav and I took Colby for a late family date night at Coronas and then went to the Belton High School practice football field to run him around until dark, hoping to wear him out. It was totally a success- Trav rocked him and laid him down and there were NO TEARS.

Sunday Morning we began the 2nd stage of Big Boy Bootcamp. We drove all over town looking for a mattress/box spring, mattress cover, side rail, sheets and bedding. We never did find any bedding that we liked, but after a few meltdowns, decided that could wait until later. (We also got home with a bonus set of Lightning McQueen jammies for our big boy.)

Colby loved testing out mattresses. Too bad it didn't really matter, because we bought him the cheapest one we could find! :) (how much comfort does a 2-year old really need?!??)

After lunch and nap time, Travis and Colby started to tackle the bed transformation.

To make a long story short, we didn't have all the pieces we needed to convert the crib to a bed, but luckily Trav's GT skills came in handy and he rigged it up enough to work for now. (at this point, I just wanted SOME place for Colby to be able to sleep that night)

The end result was two happy campers. I've NEVER seen Colby so excited about something before!!!! That night I laid down with him, read the usual Dig Dig Digging and then left him in his new big boy bed. I think he was kind of scared being in that huge new bed all by himself. We let him cry for a few minutes, and then daddy came in to save the day. He rocked him for a few minutes at the end of the bed and then laid him down. We didn't hear another peep out of him all night. I slept sooo lightly thinking he might wake up and be scared, but he never did. He slept until 8am the next morning and then just hung out in there for 30 minutes or so. He never got out of the bed until I came to get him which was GREAT!

Monday night when Trav came home from work, guess what Colby wanted to do.....

go lay in bed with daddy! haha....it wasn't even bedtime yet, but he was so excited about his bed he just wanted to be IN it

Night #2 went just as smoothly as #1- I am SO THANKFUL that Big Boy Bootcamp was easier than I had anticipated. I can't believe Colby is old enough for all of this, but I'm also very proud of him and how well he transitioned.

Now for the potty training....