Immediately after walking downstairs, M launched into a near panic attack, the likes of which I haven’t seen in quite some time.  What if they’re scared? What if they’re lonely? What if we’ve done the wrong thing? OH MY GOD, just think of how poorly we’ve childproofed!

It was Saturday night, and we had just put the kids to bed. In their own rooms. In toddler beds.

We took full advantage of the fact that my dad and stepmom were in town.  When we put the kids down for their last nap in the cribs, we immediately went to work.  The bedroom that has been “the changing room” for the last three years had to become Daniel’s room. (Neither of the bedrooms were big enough to hold two cribs AND dressers.)  Loveseat went downstairs. Bookshelves of miscellaneous crap were emptied and put in the garage.  In went the new bed, the new rug (chosen by Daniel at IKEA).  Some decorations from Target, and now it’s a frigging adorable room.

When the kids got up, we let them explore the new space in progress for a minute, and then sent them down to watch Toy Story while we disassembled the cribs.  Of course, I had to bag up all of the hardware, since it turns out the darn things were recalled a year ago. Whoops!  Cribs to the garage, bookshelf to the hall, armoire in. And a little girl had her own room.

The first night went well. Rebecca was a little apprehensive at first, but eventually settled in.  She did manage to roll out of bed around 3AM, but recovered quickly and went back to sleep. Didn’t hear a peep from Daniel, though when his Good Nite Lite turned yellow at 7:30AM, he marched right into our room to say good morning.

Naptime was a little hairy, but that’s not really much different from how it’s been in cribs lately.  There was some getting up, some insisting that they weren’t tired. But eventually both went to sleep.

The second overnight was great, completely silent.  Second nap was mixed.  Rebecca went down reasonably quickly, but Daniel sang to himself for an hour or more, and pulled off all the vinyl stickers that were within reach.  Eventually, after a diaper and sticker intervention and a stern look from Mommy, he did go to sleep.

The truth is, they seem to love their new rooms and new beds. They’re excited about them, they’re proud of them.  They don’t seem bothered in the slightest by sleeping in different rooms.  Rebecca is tickled by the fact that she’s allowed to get up and use the potty all by herself, and sent M back into our room when he went to help her one time (she then walked past our door without so much as a glance, into her room, and closed the door – Miss Independent).  I still worry about what kind of trouble Daniel is going to manage to find, and that he may end up dropping his nap before he’s truly ready, but overall he’s doing well.

I had always thought I’d keep the kids in cribs until they were three, but with all of the travel and transitions coming up over the next few months, I figured two years and ten months was close enough.  I know there will be more testing of boundaries over the next few weeks, and that I have definitely lost a big aspect of control that I had in the cribs.  But it was time.

Goodbye, cribs. I don’t have babies anymore.  I have big kids.