Jack's Big Boy Room

The realization that we were expecting again brought about a ton of changes to the house. We found out we were pregnant mid-May and by mid-June the bonus room that was being used for storage was transformed into Travis's office, Travis's office became the guest room with our old bed, we got a king size bed from Travis's family for our room, the guest room became Jack's big boy room (already in the works) and the nursery was just about all that stayed the same. All of the above still need work and this weekend, we started in on it. I've written a bunch about my checklist for Jack before baby and 2 of the 3 things on that list have been done. All that was left was to move him from the crib to his new room, but we had to finish up the room first. Or at least that's the order I thought it should go in. The plan was to paint the room this weekend, transfer all of his stuff from the nursery next weekend and then move him in there over a long weekend, so if we had to lose sleep over the deal at least we'd have the extra time to make up for it. Jack had other plans.

Thursday night he decided he wanted to sleep in his big boy bed. This made me nervous for a variety of reasons. It was not the first time he had made this request. The week before he wanted to nap in his big boy bed and all went well until I left his room and he followed me out. He had no problem with me telling him then that if he got out of his bed he would be headed back to the crib for his nap. Second, we planned on painting over the weekend, so if it did go well Thursday and possibly Friday night, what in the world would we do with him Saturday night while the paint was drying and the fumes were airing out? Travis said I was overanalyzing it and we went with it. I made the situation worse by continuously checking on him as I was a nervous wreck without the room really baby-proofed, but once he finally fell asleep, he stayed there until 8 am. Success! Naptime Friday was another success as was Friday night. We decided he would just sleep in our bed for naps and at night until we felt the room was ready for him again. The whole time he was telling us that he wanted to sleep in his big boy bed. It had to be a good sign.

Travis painted Saturday, with a little help of course, and I transferred everything from the nursery on Sunday. Last night rolled around and everything was in place for his return to his bed. It was a little rocky, starting with him suckering me into laying down with him until I fell asleep myself, but tonight went better. I love watching and listening to him talk over his monitor. He talks to himself every night for at least 1/2 hour. "This my wabbit (holding up his stuffed bunny)! This my teddy beer (bear)! This my snake! This my big boy bed! Those my airpanes! That mine too (pointing to the map above his bed)!" Tonight he said "I wuv my Mawey (Marley)! I wuv my Max! I wuv my Bill (who has moved into his room on a trial basis)! I wuv my Riey (Riley, whose picture is on his dresser)! I wuv Jiffer (Jennifer, Riley's mom) too! I wuv Daddy Travis!" No idea why he called his daddy, Daddy Travis. Usually, it's Daddy or Big Travis. No idea where that came from either. One might think I felt left out that I wasn't named, but the child has done nothing but love on me here lately, so I didn't mind him spreading the love. I swear I'll keep that video monitor on him until he's 18!

Anyways, here's some pictures of the new room. I'm really proud of how it turned out and he seems to be too. He's spent most of his time in there since moving Thursday night. He found this baby roller in Travis's supplies, so we let him give it a try. This was after we let him help me tape the trim and he decided he was doing a better job than I was and ripped my tape off.

You can't get a very good view of his airplanes from this picture, but I think I've posted a picture of them on here before. They're adorable - red, green and blue hanging in the corner of his ceiling. Also notice all of his animals. Absolutely none of them have any significance at all. The only thing he has to have to sleep is his B-E (blanky, a little lovie). I actually put most of his stuffed animals up in the attic months ago when he showed no interest in them. Then all of a sudden the ones that were left for decoration only purposes in the nursery ended up in his bed one by one. The only one with a name is Shampoo the whale. It's actually Shamu, the whale at Seaworld. His babysitter and her family brought it back for him from vacation this summer and told him it was Shamu. He calls it Shampoo and I laugh every time I hear it.

Next up...the nursery.