Tales from the.... "Crib"?

 So I've been wanting to bring down the crib for awhile now. 

Liam is getting so big, it just felt like time. No, he wasn't trying to climb out. And yes, he was doing just fine in his crib. I'm sure we could have gone a little longer. But he's a big boy now. And he was looking SO huge in that little crib, it just felt like it was time.

Plus, with being a potty trained boy (including at night--awesome I know!) I figured it would make life a little easier on us if he could get up and go potty when needed, instead of having to call for us when he needed to go. So... after a few months of deliberating, we finally decided "it was time."

The night we started disassembling his crib, and assembling his big boy bed... he was SO excited. What's going on? We explained we were putting up his big boy bed. He ran around upstairs so excited. Both kids were jumping on the crib mattress we'd taken out and set on the floor. They ran from one room to another, just squealing in excitement over the changes.

Once we got his big boy bed put together, he got in, and was ready to go to sleep (even though we still had a few hours left before bed time--lol). He also didn't want Sissy to get in his bed. It was HIS bed after all. He was SO proud. 

Here's the bedding (above and below) I want SO bad for his room. I love the quality of the quilt, and the colors are perfect! Ugh! Why must Pottery Barn tempt me so???

I love the stripes on the quilt, the stars on the accent blanket. Heck, I even love the spiderman sheets, and really everything about this room... (well, except the giant spidermen on the wall--sorry Son).I also envision some "lockers" in his room. I've found some on craigslist that I think I can paint. I can't decide if I should keep his walls blue, or maybe go more taupe like below. Thoughts???

And maybe a big vintage score board... like this:

 Or this...

Anyway, that first night, I was nervous to see how he would do in his big boy bed. I don't know how we got so lucky with Elizabeth, but she never got/gets up at night. Shocking, because she's my high engery child. Heck, she was climbing out of her crib at 15 months, leading to the now infamous "crib tent." We laugh about it now, like, did we REALLY have to zip our child into her crib. Yep, we sure did. Lol! So naturally, we were SURE she'd be out of her room a hundred times and crawling in our bed at night. But not so. She's always stayed in bed and done great. I know... surprising, right!

But I worried we might not get so lucky this time. 

So far, though, Liam has done great. The first night, I read them both a story, tucked him in, I came back 3 minutes later, and he was OUT! Lol! There was one night where he got up and came to our room kinda whimpering... and I ended up having to sleep in his bed with him that night. BUT, I think the reason was he had had a VERY long nap that day, and just wasn't super tired. So since that night, we've been limiting naps, or cutting them from time to time... just so we can be sure to get into a good habit/routine of things.

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I've gotta say, it was hard taking down the crib. Even though I was ready, it was hard. This is officially the first time in FOUR years that we don't have a crib at all. We went from having a crib in Elizabeth's room... to having a crib in Elizabeth's room AND Liam's room, then down to just his crib... and now... no cribs at all.

So taking down the crib, made me feel nostalgic for when Liam was just this size... when he needed a crib.

Look how little he once was! ;-( They are growing up too fast, and it's hard to believe that phase of life is done... at least for them.

God willing, I think we'd like to put up the crib one more time (down the line!) but until then, I'm cherishing every last bit of babyhood I can find. And both kids are happy to oblige their mama. They love pretending to be  babies (especially Liam) and I rock them and pretend to feed them a bottle and they just giggle. One day Elizabeth even asked me to "swaddle" her--lol.

Anyway, after our garage sale, we brought in our infant carseat (which didn't sell) and the kids had a BLAST pretending to be babies, and fighting over who got to sit in it first. I just love this pic above. He may have outgrown his carseat... and his crib. But he's still my baby. They both are. And always will be.