There is no sound quite like the thump of a head hitting the floor. On Saturday, during nap, time Molly climbed out of her crib to give purple bear to her brother and landed on her head with a terrible thud. Chris and I both immediately ran upstairs to comfort her and make sure she was okay. A scratch on the forehead and bruises aside, she was okay. That evening, we converted her crib into a toddler bed leaving Jack's crib in tact, especially since it's significantly harder to get out of.
We had been avoiding the crib to bed conversion for almost a year now, but were preparing to move Molly first. I had spoken to other parents of multiples and been warned to keep them in their cribs for as long as possible because this is a challenging transition. Phrases like, "drunk on freedom", "2AM play parties" and "mass nursery destruction" kept us dragging our feet. Eventually we decided that we felt that Molly was
almost ready.
Molly in our bed at seven months
About a month ago we began to read the minions Elmo's book,
Big Enough for a Bed to help ease them into the transition and asking Molly periodically whether or not she wanted a big girl bed. Just last week Molly informed us that she was finally ready. We were proud of how clever we were to stagger this transition because Jack just didn't seem ready yet. We worked on a plan to move furniture around the house, including the procurement of a low sitting book shelf from my parents to replace the hutch that housed their books, which Chris remembers knocking over onto himself several times as a child.
Saturday night we had time to remove the precarious hutch from the nursery and we would set up the new furniture the next morning. Molly was a little nervous that daddy had removed the side of her crib in the conversion, but eventually settled into the bed and went to sleep.
Sunday morning we were awakened by the sound of Molly knocking on the nursery door. We were shocked to find Jack standing on the floor beside her, apparently he could already climb out of his crib at will. That morning we rearranged the nursery and set down several thick blankets beside Jack's crib should he try to get out at nap time.
A couple of hours and a lot of giggling into nap time Chris checked in on Molly and Jack. He was quite confident that neither child had slept at all. Upon opening the door to the nursery he discovered both children, out of bed, agleam. Upon further inspection he discovered that they were dripping from head to toe in massive globs of Vaseline. They proudly showed daddy that they had made a present for mommy (who had hurt her back in other toddler related incidents earlier that weekend) to make her feel better. Despite their best intentions, their shiny happy art project did not make anyone feel better. Chris called me upstairs to assess the damage AKA thank them for their creative gift.
Both children have been obsessed with the movie
Frozen, particularly the song
Do You Want to Build a Snow Man? They had decided that they would build me a snow man in the nursery using nothing but shredded baby wipes (the most expensive kind) and Vaseline. They were both so proud and greasy that they jumped up and down and couldn't quite figure out why Chris and I were so annoyed. We gave them a bath....which did nothing. Next we hit Google...I baby powdered Molly and Jack like they were adorned with Victorian wigs to help absorb some of the oil and bathed them again while Chris took on damage control in the extra glossy nursery. A few hours later we powdered them up again, which proved to be extra challenging as both children were sleepy mean from skipping their afternoon nap. They both still look like members of the T-Birds (Danny Zukos gang in Grease) and my sister assures me that it will take at least a week of nightly Victorian head powdering before their hair even resembles normal again (My niece C had done something similar a few years ago).
I had to send an incredibly awkward note to daycare explaining our weekend and assuring them that we did not beat Molly up and then throw her into a vat of olive oil alongside her brother. We've covered the floor of the nursery in shock and oil absorbant blankets should Jack attempt another great escape. This week Jack gets his toddler bed and weekend nap time will never be the same again.
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