Our Little Monkey

Transitioning Abbie to a toddler bed isn’t without its problems. She’s now free to climb in and out of her bed whenever she chooses, and she chooses to do so often instead of sleeping. She eventually goes to sleep in her bed, but not without banging around for several minutes first. I’ve had to start cleaning every book, toy, shiny object, and anything else that could provide entertainment off the floor every time she goes to sleep to limit her play options, but she still finds plenty of ways to amuse herself. She’s pulled every article of clothing out of her dresser. I’ll put it back, but she immediately pulls it back out. I’ve given up trying to keep her clean clothes neat and folded, and instead just remember which pile of laundry on the floor is clean, and which pile is dirty. Still, it’s worth the trouble if it means keeping her safe from falling out of the crib.

The other night, while waiting for Abbie to give up and fall asleep, we heard a loud thud from her room. Then we heard crying. Ellie rushed in to see if something fell out of bed, or maybe knocked something over on her. Instead she found her whimpering in the middle of the room with no apparent cause of trauma. Ellie cuddled her for a minute, calmed her back down, and set her back to sleep. After Ellie told me what she found, I waited a minute and walked into her room on a hunch. Sure enough, there she was climbing back into her old crib.

We left the crib in her room for the twins to use. We moved it to a different part of the room to minimize her confusion over changing bedding, but she still remembers it. We did have a couple mobiles hanging from the crib, but I took them down after discovering that in order to grab them she will knock anything out of her way with a zeal only previously associated with Froot Loops.* I knew that she’d tried climbing into it before, but I hoped that she’d leave it alone without the mobiles calling to her. She found the pull-down musical toy we left in the crib though and was determined to play with it. It’s not like we left anything else interesting within her reach.

I took the toy out of the crib, leaving it bare except for the mobile frames, the sheet, and a thick layer of perma-spit-up on top of the sheet. She went to sleep that night, but she still tries to, and succeeds in, climbing into her crib. More than once I’ve had to rescue her from the railing when she realized that she couldn’t climb any higher, and the drop back to the floor was too far. Maybe she wants to continue being in the crib that contained her for 18-months. Maybe she’s exploring her room. Maybe she’s testing her limits. Maybe she can bounce higher on the crib mattress than her bed mattress. Whatever the reason, I hope it’s just a phase that passes. She needs to stop risking bodily harm by climbing in and out of her crib, and start risking bodily harm by climbing up and down furniture like her dresser. You know, like a normal kid.

*That’s a shame too because mobiles entertain the twins well now. I’ve found that I can still use the mobiles as long as I only hang one above the twins, and give the other to Abbie.