another milestone gone

This one may be the most exhausting one since sleep training at 2 1/2 months.  William figured out how to climb out of his crib a few nights ago.  In the morning, we heard some excessive giggling coming from his peanut gallery (Michael) and when Dada went to investigate, W was hanging out on the floor between the beds.  Later that day, Nanny discovered his method was simple - boost self up onto crib rail, and then haul leg over side.  Lower or drop self to ground.  Suddenly those crib rails look too low, yet really high all at the same time.

Solution was provided by retired Nanny - turn the crib around so the short side is up against the wall.  Brilliant.  Not as brilliant as William.  Today, while Mama was changing diapers for the peanut gallery, William just launched himself over the side rail on the crib.  Landing not so graceful, but objective achieved.

Solution - remove the front panel of the crib and now we have a toddler bed. 

Here's the thing - you never anticipate this happening.  You spend 8-9 months preparing for the baby to arrive - you wash all the sheets and blankets, you fold everything neatly (one friend even ironed all her daughter's clothes), you have all the cute little baskets around the room all well organized.  When that baby is born, you're ready.  Fast-forward 20 or so months, and it's all you can do to get the kids' clothes washed, let alone ironed and organized.  And by this time, the kids know how to get into the dresser drawers, so why bother folding.  The clothes are toys and the toys get shoved back into the drawer when the kids are safely into their cribs.  Uh Oh.

Yep, you've got it.  If you want the room to stay at all tidy, the only solution now is to remove everything (and I really mean everything) from the room.  Or this will happen:  15 minutes after the nanny left leaving Mama on 'get the kid to take his first nap in a bed duty', I went in to check on the boys and put W back to bed.  W was having a ball running all around the room. M really wanted to sleep, but couldn't (and greeted me with the look that says "Seriously, mom.  Can't you do something about this kid").  William had taken every single stuffed animal (remember they are twins, so we have a veritable Noah's ark here) AND every single piece of clothing, sheets, blankets and one lone burp towel and tossed them into Michael's crib.  So now Michael's got to sleep in the ball pit, William's running all around and Mommy really needs some quiet time. 

Solution - housekeeper running vacuum right outside kids' door.  I swear this has never worked for my kids.  But today it did.  Not 5 minutes after the noise started, the boys snoozed.  For a good 2 hours before W rolled over in his sleep and rolled right onto the floor.

Solution - none.  We'll figure that out tomorrow.