Morning Already?

We laid Ava down for bed at her usual time, about 7. We didn't hear a peep out of her for an hour when, all of a sudden, she starts crying. Those of you who aren't parents may not realize that there are different kinds of child cries, but there are. There's the "I'm not really crying because I'm not making any tears" cry. There's the "I never get my way" cry. The "I'm tired and all I know to do is cry" cry. Well, this was the "I'm scared" cry. I sat my laptop on the coffee table and Doni did the same with her Nintendo DS as we simultaneously made our way to her room.

It was pretty clear what the problem was soon after coming into the room. Her right foot had gotten in between the slats in her crib and she didn't know how to get it out. Every time she would try to pull her leg out the slats would press against the bones on either side of her ankle. This is bad enough if you can see what the problem is, without knowing how to fix it. Ava was less fortunate in that, not only did she not know how to fix it, she couldn't even see what the problem was because she was laying on her stomach. Maybe this is why kids think there's monsters under the bed. Sometimes something "grabs" their foot and won't let go! I blame cribs.

Toddler bed anyone?
Originally uploaded by Ava's Antics

Ava's crib is convertible to a toddler bed. A few weeks ago I took off one side of her crib and attached the half-railing that magically made it a "Big Girl Bed". Ava thought it was the coolest thing. We sat her on the mattress and she would get down, get back up, get back down, and repeat ad nauseum. We'd throw one of Sassy's toys onto her bed. Sassy would jump up on the mattress, grab her toy, and jump back down. (We don't normally allow Sassy on our furniture and she knows it). Ava thought it was hilarious. A few hours later, though, the toddler bed was not so cool.

We kissed her goodnight, laid her down, and shut the door to her bedroom behind us. This lasted all of about 90 seconds before she was at her door trying to open it. This was what we were afraid of. "Maybe if we ignore her she'll go back to bed," we told ourselves. Who were we kidding! Not able to turn the door knob, she quickly got frustrated. Maybe the problem was just that she didn't have to stay in bed anymore. Maybe it was that she was intimidated by the change in her bed. Maybe Red (Morgan Freeman) from "The Shawshank Redemption" was right: "These walls are funny. First you hate 'em, then you get used to 'em. Enough time passes, you get so you depend on them." Whatever the reason was, it was clear that she wasn't quite ready for the toddler bed. I found my allen wrench and got to switching it back again.

So, after getting her foot unstuck and holding her to comfort her , we decided that we should probably put the bumper back on her crib. We had taken it off when we changed her crib over to a toddler bed and never put it put back on after changing back to the crib. Doni set Ava down and, quick as a fiddle, Ava was sprinting to the living room. The only trace of her was a puff of smoke and a trail of flames in the carpet. She's fast! We tried reasoning with her that she had only been in bed for an hour. In her mind, she woke up and it was light out, so it must be morning, right? In reality, it just hadn't gotten completely dark yet. Try telling that to a two year old.

Eventually, we were able to coax her back to her room and settle her in for bed... again. This time it must have taken (fingers crossed). She hasn't made any noise the entire time I've been typing this post.