Musical Beds!

 Although we moved Lia into her big girl bed when she was 3 years and 3 months old, we did not do the same with our "middles."  Since Logan absolutely HATES all kinds of change, we didn't move him out of his crib and into his big boy bed until he was ready at 4.5 years old.  Since Ella was perfectly happy sleeping in her crib, we made the change around the same time, too.  I just didn't see the point in pushing them out of their current sleeping situation, especially since I felt like it kept them napping longer.  However, I have learned that my little Emmett is a bit different than his older siblings as he has definitely established a pattern of forcing me into making changes.  He forced me into potty training him in September, he forced himself out of his high chair and large car seat in January, and he has been begging me for a good month or two to move him into his big boy bed.  Since taking Emmett out of his crib involved a major event of "musical beds" (instead of musical chairs), we had to find the time on a free Saturday to take on this project.  In addition, since Emmett was getting Ella's bed and Ella was getting Lia's bed, I needed to find the time to look for a used, white, full size bed to replace Lia's old one.  Luckily, I found a beautiful sleigh bed that was never used for a steal of a deal in the neighboring town of Orting after searching on OfferUp for only a few minutes.  After messaging the owner back and forth two weeks ago, Ron drove to Orting to pick it up after Ella's baptism last weekend. Since Lia's oral surgery was scheduled for the day before our Memorial Day Weekend started, I never made any major plans since I didn't know how slowly she would recover.  As a result, we had a free Saturday on the calendar today which allowed us to spend about four hours switching all of these beds around upstairs.

As you can imagine, Emmett was so excited about the entire process!  He ran around upstairs all morning long squealing with excitement as Ron dismantled beds and put them back together in other rooms while I vacuumed bedrooms and washed everyone's bedding.  By the time we finished in the afternoon, all of the beds looked so great set up in their new rooms and Emmett was so excited to take his nap on his new big boy bed.  I couldn't get over how cute and little he looked in his bed in comparison to how gigantic he looked in his crib.  Since Emmett is my last, I was totally fine with Ron dismantling our crib for the last time and lugging it down to the garage to take it to the dump on Monday (since it is a drop down crib and no one would buy it).  I am so grateful that I was given the opportunity to have one more baby in my early forties, but I am totally ready to get rid of all things baby as I near my fifties.  All I can say is that it is about time to be done with this chapter of my life!

After taking a successful, first nap in his bed today, Emmett wandered upstairs tonight during our family movie night and announced that he was going to put himself to bed which is something that he has never done before.  Although I still ended up reading to him, saying a bedtime prayer, and tucking him into his bed, this just goes to show how excited he was to sleep in his bed overnight for the first time.

A close-up of my sweet, little boy all cuddled up in his pirate-themed bedding that matches his big brother's bed.