Emma climbed out of her crib this afternoon, crawled safely down the stairs and surprised and scared me half to death when I saw her coming around the corner of the kitchen. Yikes!
Emma had been in her crib for an afternoon "nap;" the first 30 minutes or so were spent talking and reading and apparently planning her escape. When I thought that she had finally fallen asleep (using the monitor sounds for clues) I began to vacuum the back room downstairs. When I got close to the monitor in the kitchen I checked it for lights (indicators of volume intensity) and all was well so I kept vacuuming the couch. Then I thought I heard a somewhat strange sound- not quite a thump and explainable in hundreds of ways. A few seconds later I thought I saw Porter moving around in a strange manner at the base of the stairs, and at first that didn't stop me. Until my brain caught up with my eyes (it must have been the loud vacuum noises that distracted me :)) and I realized that Porter was doing her excited-about-something dance. Is someone at the door? (One explanation for the thump sound.) Oh, cr*# I better turn this thing off, which I promptly did and headed for the stairway. At the corner who should I meet but Emma- carrying the bathroom wastebasket that had been awaiting its return to the second floor on the stairs.
Emma was not crying and had no signs of having been crying anytime soon. She was not smiling either, but that could have been due to the shock and fear that she saw on my face. (My heart practically stopped when I saw her standing there. Flashes of the completely unsafe journey she had just accomplished, complete with images of wipeouts, bumps and bruises zoomed across my mind. I felt like I was in a dream or nightmare of sorts.) I scooped her up and asked her all sorts of questions like... How did you get here? Do you hurt anywhere? Are you a monkey? What happened? Are you okay? Intermingled were hugs and kisses and loving praises and my statements of how shocked and scared I was for her. All in all, not the best 5 minutes of my mommy life. But, the best news is that as far as I could tell Emma was unharmed by her monkey-ish skills. Whew. I just wish I could see it on video or know what she was thinking or is thinking about her escape.
It is not over yet, as far as escaping goes. Steve and I converted her crib to the toddler's bed after bath time. We tucked it into the corner, padded the ends, filled the gap along the wall with rolled blankets, and covered the floor with even more blankets. Then we laid her down, turned our backs, and waited. It took about half a dozen silent returns before Emma gave up climbing out of bed. After 10 minutes we left the room and Emma promptly came to the door. I returned her to her bed and waited at the door. 5 minutes or so later and she was committed to her new sleeping arrangement. She wasn't asleep yet, but that came shortly thereafter.
Thinking about the events of today makes me sad. Emma is growing so fast! Although I am so proud of her accomplishments (I also climbed out of my crib and shared my skills with my younger brother to the chagrin of my parents) and so amazed at what she can do and how much she learns, it also makes me sad that once it is gone, it's gone. The time and stage I mean. Well, my brain cells, too, but that's another story.
I am wondering if Emma will wake up scared because her crib is gone. If she will be prone to falling out of bed. If we will need to teach her to tell time for avoiding possible early morning wake up calls. If Emma realizes how much of a big deal it is to now have a big girl's bed. If this will start an avalanche of big girl things Emma must have or do. If I'll be able to get any sleep with all of this wondering.
Emma had been in her crib for an afternoon "nap;" the first 30 minutes or so were spent talking and reading and apparently planning her escape. When I thought that she had finally fallen asleep (using the monitor sounds for clues) I began to vacuum the back room downstairs. When I got close to the monitor in the kitchen I checked it for lights (indicators of volume intensity) and all was well so I kept vacuuming the couch. Then I thought I heard a somewhat strange sound- not quite a thump and explainable in hundreds of ways. A few seconds later I thought I saw Porter moving around in a strange manner at the base of the stairs, and at first that didn't stop me. Until my brain caught up with my eyes (it must have been the loud vacuum noises that distracted me :)) and I realized that Porter was doing her excited-about-something dance. Is someone at the door? (One explanation for the thump sound.) Oh, cr*# I better turn this thing off, which I promptly did and headed for the stairway. At the corner who should I meet but Emma- carrying the bathroom wastebasket that had been awaiting its return to the second floor on the stairs.
Emma was not crying and had no signs of having been crying anytime soon. She was not smiling either, but that could have been due to the shock and fear that she saw on my face. (My heart practically stopped when I saw her standing there. Flashes of the completely unsafe journey she had just accomplished, complete with images of wipeouts, bumps and bruises zoomed across my mind. I felt like I was in a dream or nightmare of sorts.) I scooped her up and asked her all sorts of questions like... How did you get here? Do you hurt anywhere? Are you a monkey? What happened? Are you okay? Intermingled were hugs and kisses and loving praises and my statements of how shocked and scared I was for her. All in all, not the best 5 minutes of my mommy life. But, the best news is that as far as I could tell Emma was unharmed by her monkey-ish skills. Whew. I just wish I could see it on video or know what she was thinking or is thinking about her escape.
It is not over yet, as far as escaping goes. Steve and I converted her crib to the toddler's bed after bath time. We tucked it into the corner, padded the ends, filled the gap along the wall with rolled blankets, and covered the floor with even more blankets. Then we laid her down, turned our backs, and waited. It took about half a dozen silent returns before Emma gave up climbing out of bed. After 10 minutes we left the room and Emma promptly came to the door. I returned her to her bed and waited at the door. 5 minutes or so later and she was committed to her new sleeping arrangement. She wasn't asleep yet, but that came shortly thereafter.
Thinking about the events of today makes me sad. Emma is growing so fast! Although I am so proud of her accomplishments (I also climbed out of my crib and shared my skills with my younger brother to the chagrin of my parents) and so amazed at what she can do and how much she learns, it also makes me sad that once it is gone, it's gone. The time and stage I mean. Well, my brain cells, too, but that's another story.
I am wondering if Emma will wake up scared because her crib is gone. If she will be prone to falling out of bed. If we will need to teach her to tell time for avoiding possible early morning wake up calls. If Emma realizes how much of a big deal it is to now have a big girl's bed. If this will start an avalanche of big girl things Emma must have or do. If I'll be able to get any sleep with all of this wondering.
soon she'll be asking you for keys to the car! :) awww, i totally understand how you feel - aidan is trying to escape his crib when we lower the side in the morning - luckily we have ONE MORE level we can lower the bed to. it'll happen in no time. hard to beleive how LONG it took for them to get here and how QUICKLY that time goes by once they have arrived . . . and i agree, how AWESOME would it be to have a video of that?! :)
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