for the last several weeks, phoebe had been climbing into her big brother’s bed, laying her head on his pillow, pulling up the covers and giving us a huge smile. we took that as a message that she was ready for a big kid bed herself. so, the whole family piled in the car and headed out to our favorite kids’ furniture seller — ikea!

the irony here is that phoebe didn’t actually get a new bed, jackson did! always the younger kid, phoebe took the hand-me-down toddler bed that we bought for jackson almost three years ago at ikea. jackson, meanwhile, finally got the bed that matched with the starry tent cover that molly bought a while back, thinking it would fit on his toddler bed (it didn’t).

first step was to dismantle the crib! sniff sniff!

this being ikea, the new bed came in tons of pieces, of course!

jackson and phoebe were daddy’s helpers, and jackson’s excitement level grew as each new piece was put together.

patience is a virtue, jackson!

taking possession of her new bed already!

happy girl! phoebe has slept in her new bed every day for her nap and every night for her long sleep with no problems. she loves it!

as for jackson, well this photo and…

this video say it all. the kid is thrilled!

and here’s the bed, with a nice little built-in ladder and plenty of room underneath for both kids’ mini armchairs. a great spot for reading with giant pooh bear!

he may look tiny, but really, jackson’s a big boy now. that’s right … on sunday the family took a trip to one of our favorite stores, ikea, and bought a brand-new toddler bed for our little man, jackson!

the transition from baby in a crib to big boy in a bed happened really fast. a few weeks ago, we got an e-mail from one of jackson’s girlfriends, anna hyland. her mommy told us she had transferred into a big girl bed, and that got us thinking. anna’s one month older than jackson — could that mean our little guy would be ready for a big bed soon?

then, increasingly, jackson started his latest circus-like maneuver. he would take a running start from the entrance to his bedroom, plant one foot on the mattress, between the crib rails, and his hands on the top of the rail, then FLING himself over the top into the crib, head-first! lordy! it was funny, but then it was scary.

soon, he started to hoist his leg up and try to fling himself OUT of the crib. and that was the last straw!

luckily, we had planned a trip to annapolis on sunday, and the ikea is close by, in college park. so, we made a day of it. after we met amy raab for lunch (at this great new-ish place called carpaccio),and she and dave completed some wedding business, we all headed over to ikea.

jackson was exhausted, and actually spent the entire shopping trip asleep in his stroller! as mommy and daddy wandered around the massive kids’ section, checking out mattresses and bedding, etc., he just kept sleeping away! ikea has a great selection of kids’ decor and had several toddler-size beds to choose from. all of it was very reasonably priced, and most of the bedding available matched with jackson’s current primary color bedroom theme! bonus! we even found this awesome storage bin thing that hangs on the wall — three primary color circles, perfect for storing stuffed animals or books next to the bed.

once we got to the checkout, jackson woke up, and made sure to tell us “man, pay, man, bed, pay man.” our checker was a woman, but whatever!

mommy managed to snap a picture of the boys pushing the big boy bed (in boxes) from the store out to our car. what a memory! we did have to back inside, of course, for dinner. (we all love ikea’s yummy food. jackson’s favorite is the swedish meatballs with lingonberry sauce on top! molly likes the salmon and dave will eat pretty much anything on the menu!)

by monday afternoon, dave had, of course, gotten the whole bed together and ready to go. that night, after a couple of screwdriver twists, the crib was down, and the big boy bed was in its place. after a quick bath (and some pictures, of course) jackson was more than ready to try out his new bed for the first night.

molly read some stories, then asked “are you ready to go to bed?”
jackson practically leaped out of her arms! once we were in his bedroom, and he was all tucked in, arms around his “friends,” he looked up at mommy with a huge smile, said “bed!” then promptly rolled over and closed his eyes. very precious.

not to jinx ourselves, but jackson has been remarkably good about staying in his bed, sleeping through the night, etc. pretty smooth transition so far. let’s hope it stays that way!