After nearly two years of living with a crib in our family room, the time finally came to take it down.
It's been time for a while, but our motivation came in the form of two boys climbing out of the crib, onto the changing table, and nearly up the built-in bookshelves. It was another one of those moments that makes me ask Jeff how much money we have in the budget for hair color.
In the early, early days, we actually had TWO cribs in the family room. We used one for all three boys to sleep in, and the other was a feeding and holding area.
Bottom to top: Isaac, Sam and Alex ~ 6 days old, October 2008
Feeding time!
Once the boys started sleeping in their own cribs and sleeping better at night, we moved one of the cribs to the nursery, giving us three there. But, we kept the fourth crib in the family room. We dubbed it "Exile Island" and used it for those nights when someone couldn't settle down in the nursery and was disturbing his brothers.
I also used it during the day for time outs and to give boys a chance to play with a toy uninterrupted by siblings. Sometimes I used it as a jail while I cleaned up a mess or two. Remember the baby powder incident during Thankgiving last year?
Sam, Alex and Isaac: Jailed!
The boys liked to go in the crib to bounce and play. It held up pretty well against 75+ pounds of boy (and often another 30 of girl!) jumping up and down.
I let them all have a good bounce the other day because I knew the crib was coming down.
They sure fill it up differently than they did in the early days!
Of course, as soon as we got rid of the crib, we needed Exile Island. We'll have to keep a pack-and-play handy for those nights in the future.
Oh, and do you see that large framed painting hanging above the crib in the background above? It took the boys less than 24 hours to knock it off the wall once the crib was removed. Fortunately there was no injury to the children or the artwork.
Who said this gets easier as you go? Some days I long for those three little babies snuggled up together in the crib. They were a lot quieter and got into less trouble!
© Trippin' Mama 2010
3 comments:
I couldn't agree more. My girls are so much more work now sometimes at 4 :) We had a spare room for our girls to go into (exile island) but then my hubby's dad moved in with us and we lost that room. It was a sad day.
oh boy! i write this as adelyn cries quincy starts grunting and after picking up elle who is now in my arms because she got tired of tummy time. oh how things change. somedays i want them to grow up but most i want them to stay tiny forever!
Rachel, you'll never quit feeling that way! I'd love to go back to the days of tiny babies -- at least for a little while! I don't miss the oceans of bottles and never, ever sleeping, but I miss snuggling tiny swaddled babies in my arms!
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