Bedtime Upgrades

Last weekend we took a road trip to visit my family in Missouri! I was a little nervous because it would be our first road trip since potty-training Leon, but he did great and honestly, due to my coffee habit, we had to stop more for me than for him. There was only one hiccup during the trip and it was at our first stop — Leon was afraid of the loud fan in the bathrooms and wouldn’t relax enough to go, so I had to take him to the side of the gas station building with his potty chair. Other than that, he peed at each stop and had minimal tantrums during the ride itself. We even learned during our stay in a shared hotel room that Leon was waking up in the night when he had to pee, so he may soon be able to ditch the one diaper a day and be 100% potty trained.

I think my family had fun seeing Leon — and likewise, as he was all smiles the entire trip. He got a ton of new books and enjoyed playing outside with his second cousins. Thanks to Elmo Doll, his toddler pillow, and his Sesame Street blanket, he still felt comforted at night in the new space.

The night we got back, after Leon was put in his bed, he shouted that he had to poop and tried scaling his crib to get out. I really wasn’t ready to move to a toddler bed, but as Minh pointed out, it’s better to be safe than sorry. We put the mattress on the floor that night, and the next day Leon came home to a big boy bed. He was pretty excited about the new sleeping accommodations, but come bedtime he became apprehensive. I’m not sure if he was scared of the dark or of being alone, but it was tough to hear him crying like how he was. On the one hand, we want to instill independence and the confidence that he can work through his troubles — but on the other hand, Minh and I both remember what it’s like to be scared of the dark as a kid, and it sucks. We took a moderate approach the first few days and stayed with him for a while before leaving the room, then consoling him through the baby monitor. It only took a couple minutes before he calmed down enough to go to sleep.

Anyway, Leon’s becoming a chatterbox and actually has a few jokes. His favorite joke, which he picked up after reading a Sandra Boynton book, is putting his clothes where they don’t belong (sock on nose, shoe on head, etc.). Another joke is “Where’d [daycare owner] go?” The answer is “To see [teacher]!” Cue giggles. We’ll have to work on his sense of humor.

My favorite thing to hear him say (besides “Good night, Mommy — I love you!”) is “Mommy silly!” Granted, it’s not difficult to make a two-year-old laugh, but it sure is a good feeling.