I am not going to name names but someone learned how to get our of their crib about a month ago. Since then it has been a bit of an adventure. You might not have noticed but I have been blogging significantly less in the past month. This is because toddler boy, age 24 months has been getting out of his crib not long after I put him down about 50% of the time.
On luckier days, I am still able to get him to take a nap by coming into his room as soon as I hear his feet touch the floor and rock him in the rocking chair until he is sleepier. However, some days that trick does not work and he gets out of bed time and time again. Five times getting out of his crib is usually my limit. After that I sort of declare it a no-napping day and we try to find another activity to fill that time. Some days we take a walk and often he will nap in the stroller, but that does not give me much of a break.
Last Friday, I was feeling especially tired all day. It took me a lot of time and several cups of tea to get myself going in the morning. By naptime, I was ready for a break. However, Patrick was not settling down. We completed our pre-naptime ritual of putting on his PJ’s and reading 3-5 books, but he was still very wiggly. He got out of his bed twice before I decided to put him in his crib and stay in his room rocking in the rocking chair but ignoring him. (This trick also sometimes works). After counting to 500 while rocking, I noticed that Patrick was asleep in his crib so I tip-toed out the door and took a deep breath. I decided to use my child-free time to clean up the downstairs, get the mail, and take out the recycling. Then I decided to take a shower because I estimated that I might have at least 30 more minutes of free time.
However, when I finished my shower and returned upstairs, I was in for a surprise. A certain someone greeted me in my room and he looked like he had something greasy in his hair. He ran up to me and handed me the necklace that had been on top of my dresser. That is when I realized that the bottom drawer of my dresser had been pulled out and the toiletries that had been on top of my dresser were now on the floor.
I was not too happy to say the least. After assessing the damage, I realized that Patrick was not hurt and had a not ingested anything. I also realized that he did not really spill any of toiletries, but instead spent most of his free time putting Vaseline in his hair and all over his clothes. He also left some Vaseline hand prints on the front my dresser and all over my iPod.
After googling “how to remove Vaseline from toddler’s hair” I have him a bath and washed his hair. (We used cornstarch and adult shampoo and managed to get the Vasaline out gradually over the next two days). Then I did some cleaning up in my bedroom. After that my resolve was exhausted for the day and we played with toys and talked on the phone until husband came home from work.
So Friday was a long day . . . Today Patrick went down for his nap with no problems, but only ended up sleeping for an hour before I heard his feet hit the floor upstairs. I desperately wanted to finish this post so I used a mom-hack of letting Patrick watch Paw Patrol so I could finish writing this post.
We are not ready yet to transition him to a toddler bed because I don’t think we could ever get him to stay in bed. Additionally, he is pretty competent at getting out of his crib without getting hurt so I am not as afraid of that as maybe I should be. We have a baby gate at the top of the steps and he can not open the gate so I feel we are pretty safe from the stairs. My husband suggested that we start looking our bedroom door if we are downstairs and he is sleeping, so that is what we are doing now. Also while we have many aspects of our house baby proofed, we will have to work on anchoring all of his furniture to the wall.
So that was Friday’s adventure. Over the next week of so I plan on profiling other projects, plans, and things we have been working on lately.
What have you been up to lately? Reply in the Comments Section!
Reminds me of the time I left the baby oil in the bathroom and my daughter lathered herself (and the floor and the walls) in it. Took about a week for the grease to come out of her hair. The floors were sure shiny 😊
I feel like I life is getting me back for all the stuff I did when I was little. I remember standing on the sink and getting in the medicine cabinet when I was 4 and shaving my face and cutting myself. I also remember pouring conditioner all over the floor. Kids!
He’s an amazing Lad, Kate. Life with a curious toddler is always an adventure- maybe as you get closer to your due date, you could both lay down together for a little nap. You wouldn’t get much work done, but you’ll get a little rest.
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