Toddler Bed

It's been just over a week since we made the big transition from a crib to a toddler bed. I was so worried Caden would start taking shorter naps or get out of his bed, but so far it hasn't been any different than the crib at all. The night we moved him over I rushed out to Lowes at bedtime to buy some wind chimes to hang on his door... my fear being he would get out of bed and we wouldn't hear him roaming around the house at night. We told Caden the rules and he has followed them completely. We have been blessed with a very easy transition at our house.

A few days before the move we bought a nightlight that changes from a moon (at night) to a sun in the morning (for a set time you program). We wouldn't come get him out of his crib until the sun came out. Caden caught on very quickly and I think that has been a huge help in keeping him in his bed now that we've moved to the toddler bed. He sometimes wakes up early and will just play in his bed with his animals until the sun turns yellow, then he sits on his knees and yells, "It's yellow! It's time to wake up!" and we come get him out of the bed. And his naps haven't changed at all. He's still napping about 3 hours (give or take 30 minutes) every day.

He loves his bed. Of course the first thing he did was jump on it and we quickly intervened and told him that was not allowed. We haven't had any more issues yet, but we are only one week in... He seems to respect the privilege of having a "big boy bed." We have taught him that after he wakes up (both morning and after his nap) we make the bed up. He LOVES to make it up and wants to do it all by himself. He will even crawl back in and tuck the blanket down all around the sides.

We ordered the crib for our little girl two weeks ago and ordered rails for his toddler bed to convert to a full size bed. When her crib arrives we will change him to an even bigger "big boy bed" and give her the crib mattress. I'm looking forward to finally decorating his room. We painted when we moved in, but it turned out too dark and so we are going to redo it, order some bedding and get some curtains/decorations to really make his room special.

Here are a few pictures of Caden's last time in his crib and his first night in his big boy bed: