Uncle Roger's Notebooks of Daily Life

Over the walls

We put Sara in her crib for her nap and the next thing we knew, there she was. Hoping it was just a fluke, or that perhaps Jared had helped her out, Rachel put her back in. Sure enough, she climbed right back out again. I tried putting her in while I changed Jared's underwear and, once again, she climbed right out. So instead of the kids taking a nap and Rachel and I getting some work done, we took off in search of a new toddler bed for Sara.

Our first stop was Ikea -- Rachel had previously seen a toddler bed there that she liked. Unfortunately, the bed did not use a standard sized crib mattress and they were out of stock on the mattress anyway. So we continued on to Toys R Us -- one of the few remaining stores. There, they had the same fire truck bed that Jared has, a race car bed, and a Thomas the Tank Engine bed. That was the one Sara liked; she kept repeating "Train! Train!" and pointing at it. I considered it, but I noticed that the rear of the bed had a covering that was even higher than the windshield of Jared's bed. I knew that Sara would be on top of it and leaping off about ten seconds after I finished putting it together. That was the end of the train bed.

We ended up getting a simple wooden bed. The thinking is that next year, for Jared's fifth birthday, we'll get him a full-sized bed, likely a space-saving design where the bed is on top of dressers and a desk area. Costco has one that I really like. It has a desk, drawers, and a second, trundle bed that pulls out from the bottom for when friends/cousins sleep over. There's also a storage area in the rear that will make a wonderful hiding place. Once we get that, Sara can inherit Jared's fire truck. I know it's not entirely fair, but such is life -- and she'll be getting her own all-in-one bed in a few years anyway.

Of course, a toddler bed means we had to put up a gate in the door to the kids' bedroom. We didn't want Sara to fall down the stairs or into the tub in the middle of the night, let alone climb into bed with us. So we hit the Target a few doors down, but they didn't have the gate we wanted. We stopped on the way home at Serramonte to see if they had one in stock. They did, one, in a previously opened box. We got it home only to discover that the wood had been chipped.

So I started putting the new bed together and taking the crib apart. Whoever designed the crib obviously never had to take it apart and should be -- as punishment -- be forced to take it apart and put it together over and over again until the end of time. After much cursing, sweating, and pain, I got it apart and downstairs. I got the toddler bed put together pretty easily, though. Last was the gate, which was pretty simple, given that it's our second of this model, except that the doorway is actually a smidge too narrow for it, really. I did get it installed, though, and it seems pretty sturdy.

Then it was time for dinner and taking out the garbage and everything else that still has to happen, even though your whole afternoon and evening was shot and you're dead tired and the kids never did get a nap. Oh, well. At least that's done with. Now, we get to try and keep her in bed at naptime.