My "BIG Boy"

A few weeks ago, we noticed that Benn’s naps were getting shorter and shorter (Ugh…nap time is heavenly for me and I dread giving it up). Some weekends, he doesn’t even take a nap if we’re busy and he does relatively well (emphasis on ‘relatively’). So on the occasions that he does nap, we’ve been letting him sleep in Avah’s bed (a full sized big girl bed) for short stints. He wakes up rejuvenated and so proud of himself because he feels as though he’s accomplished something grand…the art of sleeping in a bed without rails and not falling out. Mediocre for adults, but monumental to a 2 year old who’s every waking moment is spent trying keep up and do EVERYTHING his older sister does.

I’ve mentioned in previous posts that Benn has been potty training. I’m NOT going to delve into this anymore than to say that we are so proud of our little man. During this time, we’ve been stressing the fact that he is now a ‘BIG Boy!’ in addition to giving him starburst candies (see previous post here).

Well, we learned fast that the phrase ‘Big Boy’ translated by a 2 year old has a literal meaning, not just a figurative meaning of encouragement and pride. As a result of all of this encouragement, Benn has informed us that he is now ready for a ‘Big Boy’ bed. Yup, you heard me right, HE told US, in the sweetest most innocent voice ever of course.
Every night he asks to sleep in Avah’s room, to which she informs us that he “Kicks me and wakes me up too early.” Ha! That kid’s full of it. Benn always wakes up 30 minutes earlier than her and she continues to sleep soundly without interruption. When we say “No” Benn proceeds to ask if he can sleep in our bed. Again, the answer is “No Buddy, sorry.” He then says, in a confused voice, “but my big boy mama?” (Cue melting heart)

As you can probably guess, this didn’t go on for very long before Russ and I decided it was time to get him a bigger bed. A new bed wasn’t in the budget this month and was an unexpected expense, but Russ and I talked about it and we scrimped and found the money to get him a bigger bed. I took the kids to pay for it yesterday so that it could be delivered tomorrow and showed Benn the mattress set he was getting. You wouldn’t think that a plain white marshmallow looking thing would be very exciting for a toddler, but boy was it ever. He was jumping up and down and so pumped. He got to sit on it for a few minutes then we signed the papers and left.

He was a bit upset when we left because he didn’t understand why we couldn’t bring it home with us, so I explained the best I could that it was TOO big and wouldn’t fit in our car and that the men had to get a HUGE truck to bring the bed to our house tomorrow. He seemed content with that and bragged to everyone we saw that night that he was getting a “BIG Boy” bed.