So I haven’t posted in a couple of days. It’s been a rather weird week around here. I’m doing a LOT of knitting (look for a post on my craft blog later today regarding my latest finished project!) as I have a LOT of knitting to do. Also: children are driving me INSANE.
Harry went back to school on Monday and not a moment too soon. He’s a good kid, mostly. But his influence has been devastating on Liam’s behavior. In the last week Liam has figured out how to: knock down the gate at the bottom of the stairs, climb out of his crib, climb out of his pack n play, get up into Harry’s loft-style bed and climb the gate into the kitchen.
GAH.
For a while, I just let Liam go play upstairs with Harry. This wasn’t great while Evie was trying to nap up there though. Then Kile reinforced the gate and also purchased a gate for the top of the stairs because of the whole “climbing out of cribs” thing.
Climbing out of his crib has been the biggest thing. He hasn’t figured out opening doors yet, thank GOD for THAT. We got some doorknob locks but don’t want to put them on until we absolutely have to. Hence the gate at the top of the stairs. No, the biggest issue is keeping Harry awake. Liam started these shenanigans on Sunday night, just before Harry was to start back at school. I eventually had to go up and lay the smack down and all told it took about an hour to get Liam to bed that night. SUCK. Monday wasn’t much better. Tuesday was a NIGHTMARE.
So last night, we just said, “Screw it.”
On Monday afternoon, I discovered Liam had crawled out of his crib during naptime and had made himself cozy in Harry’s bed (with all his stuffed animals and books to keep him company, of course).
Turns out, he could climb into Harry’s bed. And he really wanted to be there too. On Tuesday night, after we’d thought he’d gone to sleep in his crib, Kile found Liam curled up at the foot of Harry’s bed when he went to tuck them in. So this got us thinking. Who cares if Liam gets in Harry’s bed? I don’t care. Kile doesn’t care. The only one who cared was Harry. And he was caring less and less every day.
So last night, we devised a different strategy. If Harry got annoyed at Liam, he could go lay down in our room and we’d wake him and move him back to his room when we went to bed. But otherwise, just let him crawl in bed. And that’s just what he did. When Kile went in to tuck the boys in, he found Liam curled up next to Harry’s back, his head on the pillow, snoozing away peacefully. He placed Liam back in his crib and Liam stayed there the rest of the night.
Best of all, there was no drama. We didn’t have to fight Liam, Harry didn’t freak out, Liam didn’t bawl. It was nice and quiet and simple. Everyone, in the end, was happy. (And we got to watch “Lost” with a minimu of interruptions.)
It was a great example of picking your battles. Did we REALLY care where Liam slept? Nope. Not really. Was it worth driving ourselves crazy over it? Definitely not.
We imagine sleeping in Harry’s bed will be a temporary thing, while the novelty is still there. In the meantime, we need to research bunk beds for the boys to share as it’s painfully obvious that Liam is outgrowing his crib. And I get to save my angst for the battles that really matter. LIke this climbing over the gate into the kitchen thing. That has GOTTA stop.
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How cute! Elizabeth is starting to try to climb out of her crib, but no success yet, thank goodness. I’m going to turn it around so that the higher back faces the room and the lower front is against the wall – that should fix her for a while. Hopefully. Cuz I really don’t want to have to baby proof the whole rest of the upstairs. And I hate keeping doors closed. So, she just HAS to stay in her room. In the crib, preferably.