in his own time

There are times when it's tempting to want to rush our children along. The messy eating stage, the diaper stage, the testing boundaries stage. And yet each of these is important to the child, each one teaching him something. We, as parents, must realize that this is part of the journey we embarked upon when we chose to have a child. Easier said than done. 

Overall, I am content with the pace of Jacob's stages. He was never much of a messy eater, the diapering stage took longer than I would have liked (taking until 3 1/2) but I had less desire to try and make him do it before he was on board as well. And the testing boundaries stage that we are currently in.... well, I just remind myself that these tests are the easy ones. The middle school and teenage years will, no doubt, be harder. 

So, all that being said, it won't surprise anyone to know that Jacob has just recently switched from his crib to a toddler bed. He has always liked his crib, even after he learned how to get out of it. Eventually I found a toddler bed on craigslist, and we went to get it. I asked him if he wanted us to put it up, but he said he wanted to sleep in his old bed some more. I waited a couple weeks and one day, in the car, he says, "I want to put my new bed together today". Well, alrighty. 

The bed looks very small compared to his crib. And yet, this is the next stage. Funnily enough, he's had a harder time staying in this bed even though, like I said, he got out of his crib all the time at the end. I did find him on the floor next to his bed one night when I checked on him. I think he rolled out. 

The other thing we're working on is no diapers at night. This also was his choice to not wear them. His body isn't quite up to speed; he wakes up wet half the time. But other times, he'll wake up and go to the bathroom or make it through the night and be dry. It's all about the learning and when one is ready for each part of that. I like watching Jacob make his own decisions on things like this. He's paying attention to what feels right to him, and that is something I most definitely want him to be learning.

a silly face for the camera