Christi and Joel: It's tough being two

Poor little Nate - it's so tough transitioning to being a big kid. We put his crib in the attic over a month ago and have been working on how to get him to sleep in his new "big boy bed" without getting up every five minutes. For the first few weeks (that is, up until two nights ago when I just couldn't take it anymore), either Joel or I would get him to sleep by laying down on the trundle bed that pulls out from beneath his daybed until he would drift off to sleep. We'd been discussing how to work ourselves out of that bad habit when necessity took over and forced us to make a change.

My poor mother came to town to keep the kids so Joel and I could enjoy a quick getaway at Gorham's Bluff last Friday night with some friends. We purposefully didn't try to make any bedtime changes last week so it would be easier for her to just keep the status quo (that is, still using a pacifier to get to sleep - hey, don't judge me - and having someone lie on the trundle) for the nighttime routine. As two year olds are known to do, Nate decided it was time for something different. From approximately 8 PM to at least 11 PM, his poor Mimi read books, cajoled, caresssed, threatened and then just gave up on trying to get that stinker to go to sleep as we'd assured he would. Finally sheer exhaustion kicked in for them both, I guess, and somehow sleep occurred. Upon our return Saturday evening, I went through the same horror and my previously relaxed mental state gave way quickly to frustration and near tears. At my wit's end, I said, "That's it! No more sleeping on the bed," got up, pushed the trundle back under and got a folding chair to sit next to the bed. I decreed then that the new routine shall be: tell everyone goodnight, go to bedroom, choose two books to read with Nate in bed, parent in chair and floor lamp on, then prayers, turn off lamp but leave on nightlight, give a kiss and walk out of the room. With only one required return trip last night, I mareveled at how brilliant my new plan is and thought we must've been idiots for doing anything else for so long, expressing such to Joel. He said, "Don't jinx it!" and then he was right. After nearly 1.5 hours tonight of going back in every few minutes (with incrementally longer spans between visits) to put him back in bed, I noticed that it finally seemed quiet. When I got up to go check (from the study next door where I was checking facebook and emails), here's what I found:

I cracked the door ever so quietly so as not to disturb, but then hit something pretty solid

I pushed the door open just a bit more to try and figure out how I was going to get in and move him - didn't even flinch

So I pushed the door all the way open very slowly and carefully so I could step across. I just couldn't resist getting a picture (note - his room was actually quite dark and the light from the study not nearly this bright, but I had to do some fiddling with the camera to get a decent picture without waking him using the flash. That's the reason the last pic is a little blurry - long exposures in low light + me holding the camera = blurry results)