Little did I know that our big boy was going to become entranced with the crib three weeks after his little brother started sleeping in there full time. One day, after changing diaoers, the big boy climbed into the crib. "Look, mama," he said. From that point on nothing was safe. He climbs in, pulls a blanket over himself, grabs a pacifier (usually the one sitting in the crib) and Marron the puppy (his brother's puppy), and smiles. If he gets in and I'm not aware of it, I'll hear a sweet voice call out, "Mama, I'm stuck," or "Help me, Mama, I'm done."
Last week this came to a head when 20 minutes after nap time started, everything was quiet. I pulled out the book I'm reading--an interesting book on mesmerism--and sat at the table. I assumed both boys were asleep (I knew the youngest was.) Ten minutes later, the youngest starts screaming. I rush in and his older brother smiles at me from the crib where he is tummy-down, kicking his feet up: "I scared him," he explains. The youngest had a right to be scared: his brother had unswaddled him, taken the pacifier, woken him up, and dragged him out of his spot in the crib. Needless to say naptime was over for the day.
When we put the boys down for bed that night, my husband told the oldest not to climb in the crib. When I checked on the before going to bed myself, this is what I saw.
We smiled, took a picture, and then carefully put the boys back in their proper sleeping places.
