Yesterday, we decided to take down the crib and transition DJ to his car bed. And we decided to make this a big deal, in hopes that DJ will realize that the car bed is no longer a toy but HIS bed.
In the morning, I took him to Babies R Us and let him pick out his
new sheets. He had a choice of a bunch of different ones, including sheets that have a
sports theme, a fighter jet (no web shot as it was on clearance), or
Cars. I was trying to let him pick what he wanted, so I asked him, "DJ, do you want Race Cars or Airplane?"
"Airplane."
Ok. So to be sure he wants the airplane, I ask him, "Do you want Airplane or Race Car?"
"Race Car."
Repeat. Same response... he's picking the last thing I say in the question. So instead of pointing to the displays, I pull out the packages and ask him to pick between the two packages, not naming either. He picked Cars.
I did the same thing sports vs. race car vs. airplane. Eventually, it worked out to be that he wanted Cars. This was my preference, as I thought it would be cute with his car bed. I also bought him some reusable wall stickers of Cars as extra incentive. He hasn't really seen those yet, but I think he'll get one today after his nap. ;-) More on that in a minute.
Then we went to Michaels craft store, and I bought race car stickers and magnets. We then traveled to Learning How at Kenilworth, and picked up a small magnetic monthly calendar. This was all in preparation for my attempt at making a progress chart for him. I put the car stickers on the magnets to make them magnet and for each sleep time that DJ stays in the car bed, he will get to put a car magnet on his monthly calendar. So theoretically, on weekends, he could have 2 cars per day (nap and nighttime). Once DJ gets 3 cars in a row, he'll get something special. What that something special is, I don't know yet, but I am hoping just the idea of putting a car the board will at least initial incentive. Then again, we are talking about a 2 and a half year old, so who knows if this is even making a dent in his busy brain but we'll see. :-)
DJ spent his nap yesterday in his crib and he we watched "Cars video" as opposed to Bob (the Builder) video, Pixar's Cars movie. Before dinner, Steve dismantled the crib, we vacuumed DJ's room, and moved the car bed to where his crib was.
We showed DJ his room redone, and he said, "Oh! Clean!" And then he squealed with delight at his new car bed and the new sheets. While my dad and I finished getting dinner ready, DJ played in his room with Yiayia.
We had dinner, and then celebrated with (mini) cupcakes with a candle for DJ, sang Happy Birthday (he loves Happy Birthday!), and he blew out the candle. We have a couple of pictures of the kids post-cupcakes.
After dinner, we watched the end of the Cars movie, and then it was time to see DJ to bed. We got him changed into his pirate (yaaarr!!) pajamas, and took pictures.
While DJ was getting into his PJs, Papou said to him, "DJ, I like your new sheets."
To our complete surprise, DJ said, "Thank you, Papou!"
I showed DJ his progress calendar, and put a car magnet on it for Saturday. I told him that I was putting a car magnet on to celebrate his first night staying in his big boy bed. I also told him that to get more car magnets, he needs to stay in the bed after the lights go out in his room. If he gets 3 cars in a row, Daddy and I will give him a big treat (again, no idea what that treat will be... will figure that out later!). He seemed to listen....
Daddy read books to DJ while my parents and I left the room. Steve came out after putting him to bed to get his iPhone, say good-bye to my parents, and went back in there ("Text me when you need relief!" I said.). Forty minutes later, Steve came out of DJ's room, looking pretty frazzled. He was digging through a drawer in the kitchen where we keep baby stuff; he was looking for Binky. "He's not settling down. He's totally wired. He needs Binky."
"No he doesn't," I said. "He's been able to settle himself down without Binky for the last month. We just need to remind him that he can do it!" I stuffed Binky in my pocket, and went into DJ's room (iPhone in my pocket, too).
DJ was nothing less than totally wired. As I was walking in, he was running back to his car bed, giggling and completely giddy. I put him under the covers, turned off the light, and wrapped my arms around him to keep him from squirming. Eventually, he stopped kicking and stopped fighting me. Soon I heard even breathing, a big sigh of relaxing, and I let go of him. I turned on my iPhone under the car bed to surf for a bit, and I left the room about half an hour later.
He slept well enough, until about 2AM when I heard him talking over the monitor. I went in there, and he had turned on the overhead fan (I have since turned that off via its pull chain) but not the light since I had turned that off via the pull chain. I put him back under the covers, held his arms again, and this time he settled down MUCH faster than when we first put him to bed. It was probably 2 minutes or less. I laid down next to the bed for about 5 minutes and went back to bed. I laid awake another 40 minutes or so listening to him toss and turn in the bed.
He woke up again at 4:30AM wailing for "DaddyDaddyDaddy", so I got out of bed and went in there. He was in his bed, but upset. I calmed him down, put him back under the covers, told him that Daddy was still sleeping, the car bed was sleeping, Tiger and Scout were sleeping, too, so he needs to go back to sleep. I didn't stay in there more than 5 minutes, and went back to bed.
Sometime around 6:30AM, I heard him again, but I wasn't going to bother to get out of bed. I was beat. Maybe I should have, though. Steve went in (sometime around 7:45AM), came back into our room grinning from ear to ear and said, "His room is a disaster." I was too tired stayed in bed. Meanwhile, DJ had come down the hall towards our room, and got scared by the vacuum, so he turned back and went back to try to go into the kitchen. By then, Steve started cleaning DJ's room. DJ then tried and successfully got into Elektra's room. That's when I decided I had to suck it up get out of bed, too.
I went into DJ's room, and it looked like a bomb had gone off, and this was after Steve had started cleaning it. Clothes - clean and dirty - were everywhere. Blankets were pulled out of storage locations, books and stuffed animals/toys were strewn everywhere. It took us 20 mintues to clean it all.
Note to self: put some age appropriate toys in DJ's room to help amuse him in the morning. Maybe there will be less to clean up...
So DJ is now in a big boy bed... wish us luck because we'll need it.
Here's a picture for your amusement from last night...
