Posy Lane Toddler Backpack Review

I was contacted by the very nice people of Posy Lane to do a review on a few products to choose from. I chose the Stephen Joseph Quilted Toddler Backpack. Braden even picked it out and we LOVE it. But first, more on Posy Lane.

After many years of retail experience, Posy Lane, Inc. was founded by Kerrie Barton in 2007, with the support of her long-suffering husband Nathen.  The store-front was located in downtown McKinney, Texas in the historic square.  Customers quickly came to rely on Posy Lane to supply them with unique gifts and invitations for every occasion, as well as printing and embroidery services.

After nearly two years of offering exceptional products and service, the couple prepared for the birth of their first child.  So, Posy Lane Inc. closed its brick-and-mortar doors in May 2009 to focus exclusively on the internet portion of the business, allowing them the opportunity to work from home and take care of their newborn son.

Attention to detail and customer service has paid off.  We have our own North Dallas warehouse and workspace, and a staff of two full time and three part time employees.  Whether you are a loyal customer we met at the store in McKinney, a repeat on-line customer, or a new customer, we are committed to providing you with the finest products, biggest selection and best services in the timeliest manner possible.

I love that Kerri & Nathen are family oriented and worked from home! The quality of Braden's backpack is superb. It is a toddler backpack, therefore it fits him perfectly. It has a little pocket with a zipper on the front, a drawstring closure, and a magnetic closure for the flap. The outside is quilted and the inside is easily wipe-able in case anything gets spilled in there...which is almost inevitable in toddlerhood! I always pack a backpack for Braden on our outings and he was very excited to have his new, personalized train backpack!

They range in price from $21.99 - $27.00 and you can add a name in a variety of colors and fonts for an additional $6. Here are some of Braden's other favorite choices:

 Posy Lane has a TON of items for everyone in your family. Everything from baby to stationary! They also carry matching lunch totes for their backpacks...so when Braden starts pre-school...I might have to get him the matching one! SO CUTE!

All in all, I highly recommend Posy Lane. Their customer service was superb and they even recommended I change the thread color from white to red, and I'm super glad that they suggested it because I think it looks amazing in red! The shipping time was really fast, especially for a personalized product AND shipping it up to me in Canada - yes, they do ship internationally!

Thank you, Posy Lane, for a wonderful product!

Connect with Posy Lane

Facebook | Email

Disclaimer: I was given this product free of charge for review purposes only from Posy Lane, I was not compensated in any other way. All opinions on this blog are, and always will be, my own!

One Week In

Yesterday at church, the lady leading the service asked us if we wanted to share any praises or good that we had witnessed or that had happened to us the last week. I was very close to standing up to say:

"A week ago today, I stood here in tears. I was emotional (and probably hormonal!) and was so sad to see my "baby" growing up so fast. He sprung this milestone of getting rid of his crib and moving him into a toddler bed that day, and I felt like I wasn't ready. It seems so trivial and insignificant, to the bigger battles people are facing in this room and in the world today, but it scared me and all I could think of were the bad things. That he wasn't going to be a good sleeper anymore, that he'd wake up at night, that it would be a mess. But God provides. Even in the smallest and seemingly most insignificant moments in our lives. I leaned on Him, I prayed a week ago today as I held a sleeping Braden in my arms, that God would be with him, to give us both strength so that we could get through this new time in our lives. It was such a big change, but God provided, and this last week went better than I ever could have imagined."

But I didn't. I know the people in our church would welcome any story of praise, or any story that we wanted to share, but I just kept it to myself and silently thanked Him for comforting in my time of need. Braden has been sleeping wonderfully. The first 3 nights I stayed with him until he fell asleep, but ever since then, he has fallen asleep on his own. Last night he was so tired, it was the first night that he went to bed, stayed in bed, and went right to sleep.

Naps. Are a different story. He's only had 2 naps this entire week, and only because I've stayed with him and rubbed his back until he fell asleep. This is NOT a habit I want to get into, so from now on I'm going to leave him to his own devices and just pray that he is tired enough to learn to nap on his own. Has NOT happened yet, even on his most tired days, he just won't settled. Still hoping the novelty of his new freedom will wear off, like it has at night, and he will just want to and need to nap eventually. I know he's not ready to give up naps, but maybe he will just "make" himself not need to nap? Oh well, no other solution really

I am still thankful every day that we sleep trained Braden. I know it's not for everyone, but without good sleep, me, Jay, & Braden would NOT function well together.

So, Video Monitors are HILARIOUS!

...and a necessity for toddler bed training! I never used a video monitor up until this point. Just for me and my family, I didn't see the point of one...really ever. When they're newborn all they do is lie there and cry, you go in. As they get older, I can see why it would be neat to have one, to see if they're actually awake or if they're just unsettled, to see if they're standing up in their cribs, etc. But I still didn't see the need to buy one. Well, God must have known that I would need one one day, and it just so happens that last year I won this awesome Tommee Tippee monitor from a blog giveaway, and I can't see getting through toddler bed training without one! And this is why:

EPIC. NAP. FAIL.

I was SO MAD when I found this. This was "nap" time on day #2. I knew he wasn't going to sleep but he wasn't being that noisy, so I didn't think much was going on. Plus, day #1 he took about 6 books off his shelf and quietly read them for the hour of quiet time. Well I wasn't prepared for the above, that a Toddler Tornado would take over my son during his supposed "nap time". I know I got tons of belly laughs from the people I shared this with. My I can just picture my brother Ben and my best friend's husband Steve with big belly laughs saying "wayta go, buddy!" And I do laugh now, I even laughed an hour later, but mommy lesson learned!

So I set up that video monitor pronto and used it for the first time for the designated nap time the next day. I gotta admit, looking into the screen I kept waiting for one of those scary ghosts to pop up and scare me.

The really cool thing about this monitor is that you can talk to your child through the baby unit. It worked really well! Laura was over that afternoon and she caught him climbing up on his change table. So I spoke to him through the monitor for the first time and said "Braden! You get down from there please!" He suddenly stopped, looked around and had this "how did she know!?" look on his face. Then he figured out that my voice was coming from the baby unit. Actually....he didn't think it was my voice at all....



He totally, 100% thinks that it's my mom when I talk through the video monitor! It's quite hilarious and we're all getting such a kick out of it! I'm really enjoying the monitor and I can calmly reassure him in the morning that "Mommy's coming soon!" so he knows it's okay. It was time to start sleep training again, this time for the toddler bed.

Daddy read him stories last night and I came in to sing a song with him. I told him that he had to go to bed by himself tonight and that I loved him. He cried not even the 30 seconds it took me to leave his room and go turn on the monitor. It took him quite awhile to even get out of his bed, he was so distracted/entertained by his new Thomas decals we put on his wall yesterday I could hear him talking to his trains. He ended up getting out of bed twice, running to the door, but all the while remaining calm and happy. I think it took between 1/2 hour and 45 minutes for him to settle and fall asleep. My boy has ALWAYS liked to be very comfortable, so I couldn't imagine him falling asleep in front of the door or or on the floor anywhere....this is how I found him:

How did I get so lucky? I was so nervous and anxious about this transition, but he has made it so easy on not only himself, but on me too. I'm so proud of him! I think with his history of sleep training, he just knew it was bed time and that he'd eventually have to fall asleep. There was no crying, kicking, screaming, he didn't fight it at all. And as my Mom says, I think the novelty of the freedom of the toddler bed will soon wear off and he'll just want to sleep there.

I know nap times will take awhile, as he was pretty inconsistent with them before the bed, as my friend Katie told me, it takes awhile for them to learn the toddler bed nap! But at night, I couldn't ask for better. He sleeps his usual 12ish hours a night, straight through, we did decide to keep his door locked, he knows he needs to stay in his room when the door is shut and there's no fussing, crying or fighting it. He just calls out for me when he's done and that is that! Thanks for all your support and kind words this week!

*Note: This was not an official review for Tommee Tippee, nor am I affiliated with them, I do love their products though!*

Braden's Big Boy Room

I've had a few people ask me if I plan to keep the jungle theme in Braden's room. In light of his love of Thomas, I have decided to mainly do a Thomas room for him. I found the toddler bed on Kijiji a long time ago and snarfed it up because it was only $50, mattress included. My mom's friend bought him Thomas toddler bedding in the States for $30, that kind of thing is unheard of and unavailable in Canada - so I'm very thankful for friends of friends who travel to the States!

Today Braden was very excited to see that I had Thomas "steekers" (decals) for his walls above around his bed! So he helped me with that and really enjoyed it!

 




I just ordered 2 Thomas valances off of Etsy, but instead of doing all Thomas, I'm doing a "mutt" room for him. I'm keeping his jungle decals on the wall and I will keep an "ode to his nursery" on that side of the room. Other than that, all my Zoofari nursery items will be gone! I ordered these prints off Etsy:

[source]

And even though Braden doesn't know of Star Wars yet, you have to start them young and how could I resist getting him these ADORABLE prints, also from Etsy? I've been coveting them for over a year!

[source]

I would have loved to get all 8, but I chose 4 because of the price. I chose Luke, Chewie, Yoda, & R2! I'm trying to find some Thomas prints, but it's just not really working out for me! The ones on Etsy are too expensive, maybe I'll have to just print some and frame them myself? But maybe the decals are enough? His room just seems so BIG without his crib in in, we have 10' walls so I feel the need to FILL his room....but maybe less is more? Once I take down the wooden animals off his wall it's going to seem so bare! The only thing I can think of his hanging this from the ceiling and putting his stuffies in it:

[source]

What do you think? I'm not sure...can't decide! Anywho here's a few more pictures from today of my "big boy".

Oh...and just this happened today:

Braden is having his first nap in his toddler bed as I blog this!!!

Braden's First Night in his Toddler Bed

Before I get to talking about how bedtime went, I'll talk about nap time. Firstly, my boy who usually gets 12 hours of sleep per night, only got 9 the night before. We went to church and he was more fussy and impatient than usual, but stayed awake on the ride home. We let him play a bit on the deck outside, while I scrambled to get his "big boy" room ready! He helped get his crib out of his room, and I'm so happy that he wasn't mourning the loss of his crib at all. I know that he loved his crib, but I'm very happy that he obviously didn't form a special "bond" with his crib and wasn't sad to see it go at all. We enjoyed playing in his room, I said excitedly "look at your big bed in your room! Wow!" and he seemed truly happy about it!" Look how big his room is without that crib!

"So much more room for your activiites!" Said Jay (for all you Step Brothers fans out there!) We spent extra time in his room and read extra stories. Had our snuggles and I sang to him and rocked him. I told him I was going to sing to him one more song, and then it was time to rest in his big bed. He seemed fine with that. But...then he didn't like being in his bed at all. Great! I sat on the floor by his bed, encouraging him to lie down and rest and Mommy would stay...but he started kicking his feet in protest. After about 10 minutes I told him Mommy had to leave now, but it's time to stay in your room and rest until Mommy comes to get you. I left his room, locked the door, and he cried/fussed for a few minutes and then there was complete silence. He was quiet and babbled at times off and on, I left at 2:30 and planned to go get him at 3:30. I got a bit caught up in my PVR episode of Grey's Anatomy, looked at the time and it was 3:37, he was starting to knock on the door and get a bit ticked. So I went it, told him he did a great job staying in his room! Then came bedtime routine.

He had tub time as per usual...and then he read stories with me...(I was too lazy to use my good camera, bear with the cell phone pics!)
And then we had some nice snuggles...Mommy was very tired too! I rocked him and sang to him one song, and unintentionally on my part he fell asleep. poor little guy was so tired. I really wanted him to fall asleep on his own, but on the other hand, putting him down asleep in his toddler bed wasn't such a bad thing because he would wake up in it and hopefully realize that it's not such a scary change afterall.

So there's my big boy in his big bed. It was a rather heart melting moment seeing him there all snuggled into his bed. He did stir and start to whimper at about 10:30 last night, but settled himself and slept right through until about 6:45 this morning! Yay! Almost 12 hours straight through! I couldn't ask for a better first night. I am not going to get in the habit of rocking him to sleep every night. It's not our style and it's just not feasible for me with a baby on the way, and plus he will not be that tired every night to just fall asleep on me. So I just hope that now that he's slept in and woken up in his bed, that he will be able to settled on his own.

I feel really good about locking him safely in his room, and by your comments here and on IG and FB it doesn't seem that I'm alone in doing that either. Thanks for all your support, it sure means a lot to me!

I just showed Braden that picture of him sleeping and I said "look, Braden! That's you sleeping in your big bed last night, you did it!" He was so proud, tapped his chest and said "'Den! I did it!" And here's a video I took this AM about going in to get him:

And no included for your weekly TAT read! This is our same bedtime routine...there is just actually a bed involved! Thanks for stopping by, stay awhile!

Another Milestone Found Us Early

That's my boy. Standing on a chair, clinging to my leg as I'm doing my spring cleaning in my kitchen. Mind you, his intentions were good "I hepping Mommy!" he excitedly stated! One might call him a stage 5 clinger, right about now. I don't know if it's because I've been home with him pretty much every day in the last 2+ weeks other than to go to the odd appointment, and for a little 4 hour shift the other evening...but this boy wants his mommy. The good news is, he happily still loves all the other people in his life, but I am his "person". It seems that I have to put him down for naps, I have to put him to bed, and his new thing lately...I have to put him back to bed, after he climbs out of his crib so I can rock him and sing him to sleep. I haven't done this since he was 5 months old, I'm not even kidding. It's like he senses his impending doom of becoming a big brother in less than 6 months and he's soaking up every bit of mommy time that he can. I am cherishing these moments, my busy boy often doesn't have time to snuggle during the day, other than if an owie occurs and he needs me to kiss it better... But then last night happened. Or what I would like to dub.

"The worst night of my life as a mother, bar none."

No, it didn't end in injury, a trip to the ER, or anything worse. No one was hurt, except maybe Braden's feelings, and mine. I realize I might will get judged on this one from a lot of you, but we've done it with him ever since he's had a steady nighttime routine of sleeping for hours and hours in a stretch. Here's how our evening went:

• 7:00 PM Braden is in bed
• 7:45 PM Braden still awake, quietly babbling to himself as he often does
• I really wanted to go for a walk with Jay and the dog, so my instincts told me to lock up the house, "just in case" Braden climbed out of his crib at night for the first time. He now likes to try to escape out the front door and garage door to be outside, fun. So I did, I locked up the house and we took the dog for a walk like we always do
• 8:10ish PM get home from our walk to discover that, yes indeed, Braden did get up. MOMMY FAIL. WORST MOMMY OF THE YEAR.
• Thanking God that he's safe and that he wasn't upset in the least to not find us when he got up. I have no idea if he had just gotten up or had been up ever since we left
• 8:15 PM snuggles and hugs in his room, rocking and singing...not asleep but lay him down in the crib
• 8:17 PM thump.....pitterpatterpitterpatter down the hall and into the living room he comes as proud as can be that he can now escape. Hi Mommy! Hi Daddy! (he was SO cute)
• 8:20 - 9:50 PM various attempts at different techniques of putting him back in his crib so he'd stay there. "Super Nanny" of quietly and calmly walking him back to his crib about 10+ times did nothing. He was upset every time I left.
• In different intervals I'd try rocking him to sleep and singing, no dice.
• I finally resorted to putting a lever lock on the outside of his door so he'd learn he had to stay in his room. BAD IDEA. Panic instilled and it scared him so bad. ANOTHER MOMMY FAIL. I bought an extra one of these locks in anticipation of this very situation, for that when we moved him to a toddler bed, if he started getting up in the middle of the night that he couldn't wander and hurt himself and/or get into trouble - to keep him safe in his room.
• at 9:50 PM after lots of crying from him, he was finally exhausted enough that I rocked him to sleep as warm, wet tears rolled off my cheeks and onto his chubby little hands that were hugging my neck

ETA: As one of my readers commented, that I hadn't stated, we live in quite a remote rural place, we can see our house at all times on our walk.
 
I don't know why, but last night was so hard for me as a mom. In all honesty and truthfulness, I was not frustrated or angry at Braden at all. I felt awful for him. If he felt distrust in us because we weren't there when he got out of his bed the first time...I can't blame him. I think that's why when we locked him in his room, he panicked. I only did it for 5 minutes and couldn't take it, and regretted that decision. I have never wanted bedtime to be a "torture" or to be seen as a punishment. Which is why spanking to stay in bed, is just not an option that will ever work for us. His crib/bed should be a happy and safe place to be, like it always has been. That's why I've personally chosen to never use the threat "do you want to go to bed!" because I do want him to go to bed, when the time is appropriate, and up until now he's always loved going to bed.

I am not coping well with my little boy transitioning from toddler to this supposed "big boy" he has to become. Also, I feel that all my hard work sleep training him will be thrown out the window and that he will have major regressions when we put him into his toddler bed. Gone are the days of  "night night Braden" as I lay him down in his crib and he drifts off to sleep like he has since he was 5-6 months old. I saw it happen with my nephew Luke, and it's had me terrified for this milestone because of it. At no fault of my SIL, who sleep trained him like I sleep trained Braden, it was just "freedom" for Luke and I see it being the same for Braden. It turns into a game of getting up multiple times from the new toddler/big bed at bedtime, and then it can turn into getting up in the middle of the night, or waking up and getting up at the crack of dawn every.single.day.

I was hoping to transition him at the end of the summer, when he was more mentally mature and would hopefully "understand" better that he has to stay in his bed because it is bedtime. He's been going through such a whirlwind of changes that I really do not want to lay this on him now, but I feel like I have no choice but to put him in a toddler bed, starting today. I plan on reading my SleepEasy book again today for their tips on getting him into a toddler bed, and I know I'm not supposed to do it when he's teething or when he's going through a big milestone, such as a language explosion, which he is...but I don't think it's safe to have him climbing out of his crib all the time.

Big changes are upon us and in all honesty, I am not looking forward to them at all. I'm a firm believer that our children feed off our moods a lot, so I will put on my brave face and stay positive for Braden, I really will. But I don't want to let go of toddlerhood just yet.

In light of this new milestone and with upcoming plans to be gone for Mother's Day, at least we can put off potty training until the third week of May.

Again, I ask you for help. How did you make the transition from crib to toddler/big bed? Was your child an escape artist like I think mine will be, how did you handle it?

P.S. I have wonderful readers who are always kind and supportive. I'm not looking to be judged at this time about leaving Braden to go for a walk last night, so please hold back those comments if you wanted to make them. Last night was seriously one of the hardest nights of my life as mom.

Getting Serious About Potty Learning/Training

He's 2 years and 3 months old today. Time to grow up, kid!! As much as I love my cloth diapers, mama is SO ready to have a break from diapering and doing all the laundry that comes with it. A 5+ month break would be just AWESOME, okay buddy?

The reason why I had a goal of 2 years, 3 months in mind to seriously potty train Braden is because that's when my nephew Luke was trained, and they really seem to be developing on pretty much the same curve. Up until now I've been using the term "potty learning", but now...I'm going to do my research this week, and I'm hoping by the beginning of next week we can go into hard core potty training. I am a firm believer that kids CAN be trained. Touchy subject to some, I know...but I sleep trained my baby, and look how awesome that went! I know, and it is not my intent, to push potty training on him. I do not want him to have a bad experience, make it negative in any way at all....but I want it done. I feel like I know he's ready by things he says and the interest he does have in the potty now. He loves to sit on the potty, but as soon as his naked little bum hits the toilet seat he says "done!" He does understand and say to us "Pee on potty! Get potty treat!" but then he doesn't actually do it!

So here's where my week approaching of research comes in. We've been reading this book for months with Braden:

 It also came with a little boy doll and potty so that Braden can "teach" the doll how to use the potty and it comes with this DVD, which I will start showing to Braden this upcoming week, every day.

Laura trained my nephew Luke with this book:

It sounds too good to be true, but I think with whatever method I use, if I'm just consistent and have the determination to do it, I will, and so will Braden. One of my Twitter friends saw some of my tweets about potty training and says she swears by the three day method. I will use this week to review which method, or a combination of the two???, will work best for us.

For my mommy friends who have potty trained your toddlers...here are some concerns I have, and points I wanted to make, and if you could comment with suggestions or advice, I'd greatly appreciate it!

• Braden typically doesn't care if he is soaking wet or even if he has a poopy diaper...does this mean he's not ready?
• He is holding his bladder longer every week, and seems to have one big huge pee a few times a day
• I leave him commando (sans diaper) in the morning for up to 2 hours and he doesn't have an accident
• He shows great interest when me or Jay go to the potty
• Knows he gets a "potty treat" (I have a jar of M&M's) if he goes...but doesn't seem motivated on his own enough to pee to actually get said treat.
• When I see Braden pooping, I have asked him in the past "do you want to go poop on the potty?" he says "no"
• Has been quite upset, even seems "devastated", when I have changed his poopy diapers lately
• He only poops every 3-4 days...will that be really hard to train?
• Do I go right into night training too? I really don't want to just do a load of 3 cloth diapers every 3 days only for nighttime use...know what I mean? 
• We will not be using cloth "pull ups" only underwear
• What do you think of this reward system:

As far as rewards go...I have this free potty chart that I'm going to put in our bathroom, and he can put a Thomas sticker whenever he does each of these things:

I am also going to take away all of his toy trains...seriously! And make a very visual chart so that when he pees once, he will get a sticker and then get "Thomas" back. Then when he pees/poops twice, he will get to put the stickers on his chart and get "Percy" back, and so on and so forth. Mean mommy? I don't know, in my head that as a reward system will probably work better than the M&M's, his face lit up like a Christmas tree when my Mom gave him a bunch of new trains last weekend! So why not take them away and give them back? Plus I have brand new trains, some of the "big" ones that he will get once he's farther along in training. I also will be telling him that he will get a train table in his room once his diaper change table is gone. I'm not 100% sure he will understand that...but it's worth a shot. We do have a train table for him, was going to save it for Christmas, but #1 he won't actually get to "open" it at Christmas...we'd have to set it up and leave it at home anyway, and #2 if it's a big motivator in helping my boy get potty trained, it's worth the early present!

I'd love to hear your encouraging stories and helpful advice, friends!

My Child NEVER Shuts Up

And I love it! I really do. He is such a little blabber mouth. Still half toddler babbling, which I will miss so much, but half real words, & bonafide sentences! He can easily string together 6 word sentences now. Such as:

"Braden, do you want some Yop?" ~ Me
"Yes, I do! In a cup." ~ Braden

No big deal. He's just talking and telling us what he wants. He is getting to be so interactive with his trains and cars and tractors, it's super nice to be able to enjoy my morning blog reads or do whatever I need to do in peace and quiet before I make him breakfast while he plays with his toys.
 
He also really loves to dance and to sing. He's starting to hum to songs and sings along, mimicking sounds of words. Most of the songs he likes are way too fast for him to follow along 100%, but he shouts out certain words and phrases like nothing. At the end of the Veggie Tales theme song, he closes his eyes and shouts "Taaaaaa-aaaaaaaa-aaaaaaaaa-aaaaaaaaaLES!!" then laughs along at the end, for those familiar with the song.

He also loves to be silly and laugh. And is a bit OCD about having things closed:


Eating
Here is a video from today at lunch. His eating has improved so much since we took away his booster seat so he can have "his own chair" as he likes to say. Yes, especially at supper, there can be a lot of up and down, but he's also understanding a lot more that he has to come back and eat to finish "x" amount of bites.


Don't you love the "I don't know" at the end? *swoon* He is eating more meat now, still loves his fruits and veggies, and never turns down eggs or breakfast foods. Eats most at breakfast, lunch is touch-and-go, and so is supper. It seems to be getting better every day! Here's another "I don't know" from our trip to Poppy's last weekend!

Clothes
Wearing 2T shirts and mostly 2T pants. I have to roll up 2T jeans, it seems like they'll fit him forever, he's still REALLY long in the body and yeahnosomuch in the legs! Will be wearing mostly size 6 shoes, but size 7 Toms & sandals this summer!

Potty Learning
Um, yeah...not so much. Actually, I know he's ready. But I plan on doing a post about that soon, so I'll leaving you hanging in suspense until then!

One other milestone looming in our future is the move to the toddler bed. All that have done it before me say it's not so scary, but I'm just not ready yet. I'm thinking we should do it before baby comes, because it's a big enough adjustment for him to be a big brother as it is without having the comfort of his crib to rely on!

Anywho, that's about all I've got for Braden for now! Ever since I stopped his monthly updates, I've been slacking on remembering to blog about him period! Bad mommy!

"Yes, I do!"

I do not know where Braden picked this up, but it's about the cutest thing ever and it makes me smile every time he says it! When you ask him a question that he's going to answer "yes" to, for some reason he always adds "I do" to it. Here's a little video of him playing on the iPad and he wanted my help. He asks me for help many times, "help me, Mommy!" often sounds like "yummy, Mommy!"

Happy Sunday!

Toddler Sleep

If you've been around this blog for any length of time, you know that I have Braden on a good sleep routine. We did sleep training when he was 5 months and after some hiccups, colds, and teething....he had it down pat 100% by 7 months, sleeping 12+ hours through the night and never looked back. I admit it, I've been super lucky with a boy who loves his sleep. He probably gets this from his father! Don't hate me, but I can also attest that I have never, not once, been up with a sick or teething child in all his life. The rare time that he's been sick, he's slept even more. When he wakes up wailing, the odd time, I give it a minute and if he hasn't settled, I usually just go in, reassure him that everything is okay and he goes back to sleep no problem.

But now? He's 2, and so much has changed. Going to Maui he would cry and fuss for a few minutes, then be settled and fine for the night. It took awhile, but eventually he would settle for his monster 3-4 hour naps all by himself and was sleeping great at night. Ever since we got home, essentially since he's turned 2 he's so off with his sleep habits. Here's what we're dealing with now:

• Pretty much every time he goes down for a nap or night time he cries. Only for a minute or even just one "MOMMY!" but then he's fine
• Very inconsistent naps, sometimes 1 hour, sometimes 3 hours
• Always wakes up cranky from his naps
• Waking up very early, to what we're used to in the AM at 6
• Going to bed at the same time, 7

I know 11 hours of sleep is enough for him at this age, but he used to do at LEAST 12.5 hours, usually 13. Seems like a drastic drop to me. One thought that has crossed our minds, which scares me, is to drop his nap. I wonder if he wakes up cranky and pissed off from his naps because he doesn't need them anymore? I've read of this happening with other mommy bloggers, and one solution is to move them to a toddler bed...

I really don't know that I'm ready for this! Actually to the suggestion of one of Jay's daddy friends, we thought we'd set it up in his room, just so he can get used to it and see what he does.

He actually wasn't that impressed. Totally took the wind out of my sails. I thought I'd be Mom of the Year with a Thomas toddler bed and bedding!

At least the cat likes it! So for now...we have both his crib up and the bed. There's enough room and maybe one time he'll want to sleep in his new bed? Who knows.

I'm really in no hurry to get him out of his crib, he just needs to be out before another baby comes along, so we do have quite awhile! I'm just trying to think of anything for why he's been so off with his sleep now.

Any suggestions? I'm all ears! If you've had similar experiences with your toddlers, I'd love to hear them. For now, I'm just going to gauge day-by-day whether or not he needs to nap or not and not automatically put him down.