The Crib Escape and other Climbing Feats

The day we've been dreading for quite some time now has finally come to pass. Ivan has figured out how to climb out of the crib.

I'm not sure how or when he did it, but after he woke up from a mid-day nap and started crying/whining in his regular "come and get me" voice, I went upstairs. He was in the hallway, holding on to the gate. At that first split second, I though nothing of it (since I was groggy from taking a nap myself), when my eyes widened and I realized "Oh shit, he's not in his crib."

I retrospect I wonder whether he even napped. Considering that I don't recall hearing any tumbling noises right before he called for me, I suspect he climbed out of the crib some time earlier. ) About half an hour earlier, I thought I heard him wake up and make bouncy noises in his crib: he likes to lie in his crib, kick his legs up and then slam them against the bed. So originally, I dismissed those noises and assumed he fell back a sleep. But now, I suspect that was when he got out of the crib. I also believe it's possible that he climbed up on our bed or the spare bed and slept there. But this is just a hypothesis, (although a viable one).

This new development is really bad. Now we have no place to put him for him to be safe, if one of us is home alone with him, if we want to take a shower, which is exactly what I did today and what I do on all other days when I'm alone with him.

I put him in his crib around 8:30 a.m. today, not thinking he would fall asleep because it was so early in the day, but just as a quick milk/rest break while I take a quick shower. Surprisingly enough, he didn't object and soon I realized he fell asleep. So I decided to squeeze in a nap as well before showering. In retrospect, I was lucky he slept, because this would've been a prime opportunity for him to attempt the climb out of the crib.

Andy said that soon we'll have to convert the crib into a toddler bed. But I'm apprehensive about doing that yet because Ivan doesn't sleep peacefully, facing one direction all night long, but tends to make circles in his crib and often wakes himself on the opposite side of the crib or is sleeping sideways. And I've watched him sit up in his sleep and just throw himself/let himself fall in the opposite direction.

I'm just hoping that this crib hopping was an abberation.

This entire day today he's schedule was off. First he woke up shortly before 5 a.m. and would not go back to sleep, milk or no milk. And since Andy got up to go to work at 5 anyway, Ivan just took that to mean, OK time to get up.

We went to the living room to play. He seemed intent on running around and climbing onto the furniture, which was unusual for him because he's not really a climber. First he sat and then stood up on the bench at the table for me to give him food (yeah for asking for breakfast, nay for standing up on the bench). Throughout the day, he kept trying to climb onto the table.

Then, while I must have closed my eyes for a second although I was desperately trying to stay awake, I opened my eyes to find him standing on the arm of the leather sofa, ready to throw himself onto the sofa. Considering that we have wood floors and that a huge planter was right behind/beside him, this freaked me out more than the subsequent crib incident. He invinted a new game. He put his plastic red chair to the edge of the sofa, so he can step onto the chair and then step onto the arm of the sofa and then throw himself onto the sofa. He thought this game was really funny. It was really innocous, as long as I was alert and awake and supervising him so he doesn't fall of the sofa. Then a conflict arose. Mariposa decided to wake up from the chaise lounge and check out what we were doing. In other words, hop up and a settle herself right in the middle of the leather sofa-- because that was center stage where all the action was. This, of course, annoyed Ivan who now no longer had the length of the sofa to throw himself on....


Yesterday, while I was in the kitchen for a minute, thinking he's playing in the living room, like he always does, I found him sitting on the glass desk. He usually likes to sit up on the chair that's at the desk but this was the first time he climbed onto the desk itself.

I guess it's time to sign up for Gymboree.


Today overall:
Ivan's schedule was completely thrown off for some reason today. We missed the music class today because of his first nap of the day. We never made it out of the house today. I was hoping to take him to the mall today but he absolutely refused to let me put socks and shoes on, so I eventually gave up on the mall idea. (It was too rainy and cold to go out to the playground.) Then he took his second nap, otherwise known as the great crib escape. Then he fell asleep between 4:30 and 6:40, which was really strange because it was so late in the day. Finally we put his to bed by 8:30 or so. He couldn't fall sleep but called for me to come and cuddle him. So he and I laid on the spare bed while he fell sleep. I love my cuddly time with him.