Two Going on Twelve

A recent conversation at our house:

"Mommy, I NEED animal crackers"

"No Madeleine, not now. It is almost time for supper."

"Mommy, don't you tell me no!"

Nice. A preview of the teenage years?

Trials and Tribulations of the Toddler Bed

A few weeks ago when David’s parents came to visit, I had the brilliant idea of converting Madeleine’s crib to a toddler bed. I figured his dad could help take the front part off. Has she outgrown the crib? No. Does she climb out of the crib? No. Is she getting body parts stuck in the crib slats? No. I just figured almost 2 ½ was old enough to transition to a toddler bed.

The first morning I went in to get her at the normal time. I turned on the light and Madeleine wasn’t on the bed. Her pillow and blanket were in a pile on the floor. Checked under the pile – nothing. Then I heard the distinctive sound of a little snore and this is what I found:

The scene from the Wizard of Oz where the house landed on the Wicked Witch played out in my mind. She was under there with baby doll clutched in her arm. How she managed this one, I’m not sure. I just know that taking her out required a bit of finesse. I didn’t want her to try and get up on her own and wind up bumping her head and getting stuck. Getting her out from under there reminded me I hadn’t used the dry mop under her crib in a while.

Over the next few mornings I’d go in her room and find her in all different locations – in the closet, by her hamper, in the middle of the room and right in front of the door. I decided to tuck the blankets in underneath the mattress even though it wasn’t too cold. Nice idea, but, well, she was getting out from underneath the blankets somehow and landing with a thud on the floor. “Mommy, mommy, holp me”.

After the 4th night in a row where I had to go in on 3 separate occasions to pick her up I decided I needed a new plan of attack. Last night I tucked her in on both sides and made sure she was in there snugly. Apparently too snug. At 9 PM I heard “Mommy, mommy, I shuck”. Ooops, had those blankets a little too snug and she couldn’t roll over. I loosened them slightly and we made sure she could roll over before I left the room. Fast forward to this morning – SCORE – she was still snug in her bed.

Twelfth night is the charm, I guess!

The Little Elephant

Madeleine hasn't shown much interest in Halloween before this year. The first year she looked ticked off that I dared to put her in a costume:

Last year she was sick and not all that agreeable when it came to taking pictures.

This year, we brought her to the Halloween store to find a costume. There were 4 or 5 animal costumes in her size, so we lined them up and let her choose. She raised her arm up to her face like an elephant's trunk and trumpeted. An easy choice in her mind.

One of the benefits of living in our neighborhood is not being able to look into my next door neighbor's house while standing in mine. The downside is our street is 1/2 mile long with no street lights. We went to 8 of the 12 houses on our street and she came come with a bucket full of candy. This year I got smart - instead of walking with her and ultimately carrying her, I broke out the wagon to take her around:

The flaw in this plan was someone expected wagon-to-door service and didn't want to keep getting out once we got to the house. Ah well, she has fun and that's what counts.