Jail Break!

We had it coming to us sooner or later. But it still surprised the heck out of us. We heard the startling thump in the middle of the night. Parents, you know the one I'm speaking of: the sound that lets you know that your days with a contained child are over. Christopher escaped his crib, opened his door, then entered our room saying "I want Daddy's pillow". We were so shocked we just let him lay in bed with us for a few minutes. He recited some of his books out loud in the dark until we had had enough then back to bed he went. He continued the escape routine several times the next night, to the point we decided it was time to just convert his crib to a toddler bed. We aren't interested in prolonging the crib. I look at this as another milestone; in fact something to be celebrated. After all, he is growing up and its time to do new big boy things. So no crib tent or gates for us. He will learn to stay in his bed all by himself. It is an interesting process, this sleep training. He goes down at 7:30 without objection or bed exits. Then sometime around 11pm the Jack-in-the-box routine starts. He gets out (or falls out), comes to find us, we lead him silently back to his bed where he will sleep, without protest, for a couple hours until the process repeats itself. It really isn't that bad and I think after a few nights he will get the hang of it. Until then, he is a bit more cranky than usual during the day, having had a broken up night's sleep. We'll survive.