One of the challenging things about raising kids, especially when you have a quartet of them, is how different they are.
Consider this example. The 6-year-old Zoologist and the 4-year-old Ballerina each spent three years in a crib without once climbing out, trying to climb out or ever giving any indication that they had thought about trying to escape.
Which brings us to the 2-year-old Demolitions Expert.
The Demo Expert turned two-and-a-half in February and she celebrated the approach of her half birthday by learning to climb out of her crib. For a couple of weeks we went back and forth with her trying to convince her to stay in her crib. Occasionally she heeded our exhortations, frequently she operated as if she was shocked, shocked to learn that she shouldn’t be climbing out of her crib.
Then came last Thursday night.
There are two things you need to know about last Thursday night before we get to the escapades of the Demolitions Expert. First, thanks to the imminent arrival of spring my allergies were going crazy and I was quite miserable for the entire night. Second, I had to be up at 5:30 to get to work early that morning.
Everyone went to bed as usual and for a few hours all was well, but by 1 a.m. I was wide awake sneezing and blowing my nose. I spent the next hour and a half restless, tossing and turning, and generally hating life. At around 2:30 the sounds of what I could only assume was a marching band’s drum section warming up before their big number came across the baby monitor. Now, it’s important to note that the baby monitor is in the nine-month-old Jedi’s room with the door closed. The Jedi’s room is next to the Demolitions Expert’s, but for me to hear a tremendous racket that clearly through the monitor meant that our little girl had quite a party going on.
Since I was wide awake I hopped out of bed and made my way to the other side of the house. Here is what I discovered. An adorable, smart and adventurous little girl had climbed out of her crib in her darkened room (I still waffle between being terrified by this and impressed). She had then pushed some toys over to the wall so that she could climb up the toys to reach the light switch. The sound that I was sure was a rhythm sections take on the Hawaii Five-0 theme was her opening and shutting the door to the closet to get out some of her toys.
Two days later we moved the Demolitions Expert to a toddler bed. Here’s the plot twist that I didn’t see coming, the band hasn’t been back at all.
