Victory is mine!

Although it is March Madness, I am not speaking of a basketball victory (although I'll throw out a Rock Chalk Jayhawk!). I am talking about a much more important victory, one that truly matters - I won the argument of the race car bed!

V-I-C-T-O-R-Y

If you don't know what I am speaking of, click here and it will bring you up to speed on the major battle that was brewing in our household. It's all kind of a blur now and to be honest I'm not sure how I did it. I wish I could remember what exactly was said by me that put the ball 100% in my court and led me to win, but I don't - which really stinks because I'd like to use those argument skills again in the future. Oh well, I'm just glad it happened.

Here is where we netted out with Z's big boy room. The only thing it is missing is new window coverings but I gotta say I think it is adorable. I was taking the pics in a hurry for something else so when I have a minute I'll tidy his room a bit and take some better photos and post them. Wait, who am I kidding? No I won't.

Oh and I have to say that although I had purchased bedding for my son's big boy bed about 5 minutes after he was delivered, when I got to the actual designing of his room 2.5 years later, I bought all new bedding. My husband really loves it when I do things like that! It definitely isn't the first time and I can't imagine it will be the last. Oh well, that is what Craigslist is for. Anyone in the market for some cute boy bedding?

My kids never cease to amaze me

I'm sure the two people who read this blog (thanks mom and dad!) know by now that Z man is a crazy child. I love him to pieces and adore the craziness that his small little body houses. He is so him and I would not want it any other way. His new obnoxious habit is guzzling a drink in the kitchen and then spiking the cup on the floor. Unfortunately it is hilarious and I have an extremely hard time disciplining him because I am laughing so hard. I mean where does he get this stuff? He is only 2!

Over the holiday break we moved Z to a big boy bed. Seeing him in his crib he just looked smooshed and he had been waking up ridiculously early for the past several weeks, figuring he was uncomfortable we thought it might be a good time.

I was a nervous wreck over this switch. Allowing the maniac that kind of freedom could not be a good thing. The things he does directly in front of my face are unbelievably dangerous/appalling/messy/bizarre/frightening/defiant/insane so I could only imagine what he would do when left to his own for hours and hours on end. And to make matters worse we got him a bunk bed. Not to worry, we aren't total morons, we do not allow the ladder on it unless a parent is in the bedroom. He sleeps on the bottom bunk which is a full size bed.

The first night he slept in his new bed I spent a good hour "Z proofing" his room and probably another two hours making sure the front door was locked, car keys were no where to be found, securing the baby gate by the stairs, ensuring all chemicals were under lock and key, leaving lights on in various places in our house so when he did escape he would not fall, etc. etc. In addition, I slept for about 30 seconds that night as I was convinced there was NO way we would get through the night without him roaming the house and finding every danger to be had.

Here we are close to 1 month since the switch happened and the kid has not attempted to get out of his room, sleeps in until about 9:00 every morning and goes to bed without a peep. When he wakes up in the morning he just yells for us to come get him and he doesn't even get out of his bed. Whaaaat? This is not the Z man I know. This is just not sitting right with me. He must be plotting something.

Vroom Vroom goes his bed

I'm a dork. That is a fact. I have had the bedding for my 2 year old son's big boy bed for about 2 years now. I found what I liked, bought it and haven't wavered on my decision once. In addition, over the past few years I have spent many happy hours looking for the right accessory that will go in this spot or the perfect color blue lamp shade, etc.

Z is still in a crib but he is very close to learning how to propel himself out and break one or more body parts. That means room transformation time!!!

My husband really never gives much of an opinion on anything and normally he lets me interior decorate to my heart's content. Although he doesn't interject very often, when he does, 100% of the time it is annoying. His last strong opinion was when we got married almost 9 years ago and he had a major opinion on the weight of the everyday knives we were registering for. Here we are, a short 9 years later and he has another opinion.

This time his obnoxious opinion is on the choice of big boy bed for our son. He wants a race car bed. Let me repeat that - he wants a race car bed. Yeah, I do mean one of those very large, very plastic, very red race car beds.

I'm a snob - can't help it. I not that big on plastic toys for my kids and so you can probably imagine a race car bed is not in the design schematic I have drawn up for Z's room. Yes I'm not kidding, I'm that big of a dork I have a drawn up layout of his big boy room - did it for my daughter's room too.

So here we are. Every day I walk a line of "hmmm... he never insists on much, maybe I should let him have this one thing" to "Oh my God, there is no way in hell I am putting a race car bed into my design plan." I'm at the point that I'm considering paying someone $400 to build me a wood, chic race car bed for the little guy. Yes, I have gone so far as to price that option. I'd do it but I don't think that would satisfy my husband's race car fantasy.

I realize many a wee boy has been incredibly happy in a red plastic race car bed and I'm sure Z would absolutely love it, but let's be honest - it is all about me :)

My daughter summed it up best. We were talking about the bed and I was mentioning many cool and appealing to the eye options that we could get for Z. My husband asked our daughter which one she thought Z would like better. She said, "Dad, you know you are the one who wants a race car bed." Exactly!

Maybe I should get one for the hubs and let him sleep in it so he can get over never having one as a boy and leave me alone to design away.

We're on Vacation

We went to a wedding in my hometown over Memorial Day weekend. It was the perfect scenario as my parents live there and it was my father's birthday so it was a great chance to see the 'rents, go to the wedding and celebrate dad's big 68. Three birds with one stone - my favorite!

On Friday night we attended the rehearsal dinner and so my parents volunteered for kid duty. I find it hilarious how grandparents do things differently than parents do. As the story was told to me, our 4 1/2 year old daughter did all the regular bedtime things: potty, put on pjs, brush teeth, bedtime story, etc. However, apparently her night did not end there.

The first mistake my parents made was asking her what her bedtime was. To be honest I was beyond surprised she came up with a number that is actually a time. My best guess to her response would have been "twenty eighty" because that is her favorite number, but she confidently told my parents it was at 8:30 since she was on vacation. That is actually an hour later than her real bedtime but not too bad considering she has no idea what time she goes to bed. Lord knows where she got that "on vacation" thing.

A better parent might teach their children their bedtime but I like to keep my options open. On days where my kids are driving me crazy I'm a fan of going with an earlier bedtime (I have been known to put my kids down at 5:15 PM but in my defense it was daylight savings and I got completely confused as to what time it actually was) and on nights when we have friends and their kids over my little monkeys stay up obnoxiously late.

On regular evenings with nothing crazy going on I am kind of a bedtime drill Sargent. In our household the rule is that you have a one-time limit on coming out of your room after bedtime unless there is a true potty emergency (Let me clarify, that is for my children only, my husband is allowed to get out of bed as many times as he wants). I should have relayed that information to my parents because apparently our daughter went over that limit by about 17. The excuses ranged from the mundane of needing water, having to potty again and again and monsters on her ceiling. Up to the more creative, blood on her finger (upon inspection my mother found the smallest of dots that was probably from a marker), sleeping bag was too noisy, shoes were walking around the room by themselves, her eyeballs were itchy and what was the evacuation plan in case of fire?

My parents knew she really needed to get to sleep but they were so impressed with how inventive she was that they anxiously awaited what she would come up with next. About an hour and a half later my father coughed twice to which she softly said, "Poppa, you okay?" and then louder "Poppa are you OKAY?" and after hearing no response she shuffled into their bedroom to ensure that he was in fact not choking. He said "Yes, I am fine honey, thank you" and off she went to bed not to be seen again. That is until she crawled into bed with my husband and me at 5:22 AM to ask why cows are brown. We had gotten home just a few hours before after numerous adult beverages and weren't exactly thrilled to see her sweet face at that early moment. I asked why she didn't wait until the clock had a "7" on it before she came into our room (another one of our rules) and she chuckled and said "Mom, we're on vacation." New rule, next vacation kids aren't invited.