big boy bed.

It's been a very Nathan-centric weekend in our house. Yesterday we got his aquarium, an early birthday gift, and started setting it up. It looks really nice in our family room, the water has finally cleared up, and the sound of the water is very relaxing. The goal is to add some fish next week and more the week after until it's complete -- hopefully by Nathan's actual birthday!

Today, we went and bought a mattress and box spring from our favorite place (Costco) to convert Nathan's toddler bed into his "big boy" bed. We got lots of chuckles in Costco walking around like this:

Looking back on Nathan's sleeping patterns, I started as an avid crib sleeper and was determined that Nate would never co-sleep. The toddler bed, however, was our undoing. Nate slept in the bed for all of two weeks before deciding that he was a.) scared of his room b.) needed to hold onto someone's arm to sleep and c.) that he was going to sleep with us as long as humanly possible. He also learned how to operate doorknobs, so that didn't help our cause. After lots of sleepless nights, where I made futile efforts to get Nate back into his room, I gave in. I became a co-sleeper by necessity because, let's face it: I.was.exhausted!! I then started to get the toddler version of Stockholm Syndrome where I really loved the idea of co-sleeping because I got to spend more time with my munchkin and he will only be little once. But as of late, Nate has become a nighttime kicker and there have been many a time when I've woken up positive that I had a broken nose, was missing an eye, etc.

That brings us to our big boy bed. IT IS TIME! Once we got the mattress and box springs, got it home and set up the new bed, I got to go to Target and Bed Bath & Beyond (yay!) to pick up new bedding and a mattress pad. While I was gone, Chris worked a miracle and got Nate to take a nap in his new bed! I'm happy to report that this transition didn't make me cry like when we converted to his toddler bed.

Since we are still potty training, I jokingly said that it would be ironic if Nate had an accident while I was buying the (waterproof) mattress pad. Luckily, he was a champ and made it through nap time dry! Afterwards we set up his bed and it now looks like this!