Transitions

That was Griffin's shirt at the end of the day yesterday. And this wasn't a particularly bad day by any means.

This has been a month of transitions. I haven't had a chance to write about it yet, but Griffin made the leap to his Big Boy Bed a few weeks ago. Here's what happened -

He and I were playing in his room (on the main floor), the one with his crib. The crib that he lovingly slept in every night for two and a half years without complaint. The crib that he never attempted to climb out of, let alone sit up in. I would lay Griffin down and come in when he yelled for someone to come get him. And he'd still be laying down. It was that easy.

So back to our conversation a few weeks ago:

G: This is my room.
Me: Yep, this is Griffie's room.
G: This is where I sleep.
Me: That's right.
G: Daddy and Cooper sleep upstairs but I don't.
Me: [GULP] No, your room is down here.
G: My room is downstairs and Daddy and Cooper's rooms are upstairs. [accompanied by forlorn look on his face]
Me: [GULP, heart breaking in two, chin quivering] Do you want to sleep upstairs, honey?
G: Yeah.
Me: OK, we'll set up your big boy bed in Cooper's room.
G: OK!

So that's how it happened. He guilted us into setting up his Big Boy Bed, which is technically the trundle drawer for Cooper's twin bed but it works perfectly. They sleep next to each other, Griffin on the lower part so he can't fall out, and Cooper above him so when he falls out he lands on Griffin's bed. Which has happened twice already without any tears or waking.

Griffin's bed is flush with the corner walls, so the worst that happens is we hear him kicking the walls in the middle of the night. Unlike everything else about parenting him right now, the bedtime transition has been remarkably easy.

Cooper is also about to make a big leap. Today was his last day at his old daycare/preschool and on Monday he starts at the fab-u-lous preschool attached to the fab-u-lous elementary school in our town. Triple-A rated or whatever it is they say that indicates that it's a fab-u-lous school.

We went to the open house last night and were overwhelmed by its awesomeness. The two teachers in Cooper's room? They both have their masters in early childhood education. Miss J is a young woman about 30 (I'm guessing, it's always hard to tell after about the age of 12, I'm not a good guesser), and his other teacher is a young African-American man with long dreadlocks pulled into a ponytail. Cooper fell instantly in love with Mr. L.

This may make me shallow, but I'm really happy that Cooper will be having an African-American male teacher. It'll be good for his cultural development or whatever it is that teaches kids to love and accept all sorts of people.

It was super hard for me to tell his current teacher that we're moving him, and the sad part is he's leaving his BFF Collin at his old school. But! Griffin will still be there so hopefully we'll be seeing him either in the mornings or in the afternoons, depending on the transport scheduling. Oh, and we've signed them both up (along with a few other boys in their class) for soccer starting in September, so the dazzling duo will be together every Saturday morning.

Whew. That's about all the change I can handle for one month.

- H