My Baby Is Growing Up

The past week has been an exciting week in Bryce’s life! We have checked off a couple of milestones on the “growing up” checklist, and I couldn’t be happier. Some parents seem to be so sad when their kids reach milestones such as these, but I love watching my kids grow up. It is so much fun to watch them learn new things and to come into their own personalities. The preschool ages are awesome!

Milestone #1: No more diapers or Pull-Ups!

As you probably already know by now, Bryce has been potty trained since February. He only used Pull-Ups for 2 days, and then when straight to wearing undies. Since then, we have used Pull-Ups at night, but most mornings he wakes up dry anyway. Early last week I got Bryce out of the bath and went to grab a Pull-Up for bed time, only to find out that we had no more. We decided that would be the end of Pull-Ups and we would just cross our fingers and hope for the best.

He has done so well and hasn’t had any accidents during the night, even after sleeping until past 10AM yesterday! I imagine that he will have a couple accidents here and there, so I did buy a few extra sheets for his bed over the weekend, but so far, so good.

Milestone #2: No more crib!

We didn’t really have a reason to transition Bryce from his crib to a toddler bed this weekend, but we also didn’t have a reason NOT to. He is 2 ½ years old, and I just felt like he didn’t need to be in a crib any longer. He had never tried to climb out and seemed perfectly content in his crib, but we decided it was time to take the side down. Now he can get in and out of his bed all by himself!

When he first got in bed last night, he thought it was cool that he could just get up and get out of it by himself, and he decided to practice that maneuver several times. After he got up for the third time and tried to play with his toys, I told him that if he didn’t stay in his bed we would have to put his crib back up, and that seemed to work. I tucked him in and he stayed put all night.

The only thing I worry about with this conversion is that he won’t sleep as late as he normally does on the weekends. When he was in his crib, he would wake up, roll around a bit, and go back to sleep. He had no problem sleeping until noon if we let him. Now I am afraid I will see that sweet little face next to my bed earlier than I might like.

We got rid of a bunch of “baby-related items” yesterday too. Since we took the bumper of Bryce’s bed, I was able to pack up the Ultimate Crib Sheets and pass them down to my best friend who just had her baby. (Those things were lifesavers, BTW, so if any expectant or new parents are reading this, you need to make sure you have some of those, especially if you use a bumper in the crib!) I also threw out all of his bibs that had been sitting in his closet for a few months now, and we put some baby toys upstairs with the rest of the “yard sale items”.

Why is it when you put toys in the get-rid-of-this pile the kids decide they are the coolest toys ever and want to play with them? Seriously. I took this old Fisher Price jungle toy out of Bryce's room because all it had been used for lately was as a climbing tool. Of course once I took it out of his room and told him we were going to give it to a baby so they could have fun with it, Bryce played with that thing all afternoon yesterday.

Like I said, I love watching my kids grow up, and I don’t find it sad at all. Each day brings more and more knowledge about the world around them, and Brian and I are having such a great time watching Rylie and Bryce grow and mature. I don’t know if I will still be saying all of this when they are know-it-all teenagers, but for now, life is good. My babies aren’t babies anymore, and to me, that’s a great thing!