Big Kid Beds

We've had the nursery set up with two toddler beds for months. No one has ever slept in that room ever; there has only been lots of playing on beds, on the car mat on the floor, and much diaper changing. All the sleeping [or lack thereof] happens in the master bedroom, where our queen sized bed is flanked by two cribs. Thank goodness our bedroom is huge. We have snuggle time in the big bed, kids go down into their cribs, when they wake up sometime between 11 pm and 3 am they get pulled into our bed for the night.

For the last few nights, both kids have had a really hard time falling asleep. Even though we start stories around 7pm and Monito falls asleep by 8ish, Pequita is averaging 10:30 for her fall asleep time. This includes many summons to H-Mama to come upstairs. I just found out - after months of not being the chosen parent at night - that H-Mama has been nursing her, reading to her after we put her down, all the things I thought we agreed not to do. Apparently, *I* agreed not to do them but she only nodded without conviction.

Tonight, we put them down to much complaining and came downstairs to do some baking and food prep for a barbecue tomorrow. They cried a little on and off, sang to themselves, cried a little more, and then Monito started calling Help! Help, Mommy! with some vigor. I decided to go up, and was met at the top of the stairs by both kids. Out of their cribs and crying hard. Apparently, Pequita decided she was really and truly a big girl and climbed out of her baby cage; she then either helped Monito out of his crib or he just didn't want to be left behind, but he had a little trouble vaulting over the bars and called me up for help. The crying was happening because now that they were out of their cribs they were afraid of 'horns', the catch-all imaginary being that is the source of all their fear. Also, I think they were a bit surprised and scared by their successful rebellion. They have been pushing limits all day every day for weeks. In the course of nursing them into a calm place, we figured out that Pequita wanted to sleep in the nursery in her toddler bed. Monito just wanted to sleep where his sister was. So into the nursery we trooped, set up a fan for them and got them settled. Monito was asleep in a couple minutes and Pequita had her final summons for H-Mama at 10: 45 pm. They are still asleep at 11:53 [and why am I not asleep you might ask? Stupidity, pure and simple.] Talk about a milestone! I have no illusions that it can possibly be this simple, but wouldn't it be nice if this stuck? I'll try to get a picture, but mostly I'm afraid of rocking the boat with my flash.