Monday's To-Do List

(1.) Finish closing down my classroom for the summer-yay!

(2.) Take Taylor to his 1st official swim lesson with Marie

(3.) Take down the CRIB
(4.) Put up Taylor's new BIG BOY Bed

After sitting down to write this post, I'm excited that I can put a check mark next to all 4 things today! It was a busy day, but an important day of transition for Taylor. Everything at this age is still a period of transition. To ensure that Taylor continues to love to play in the water we decided to give swim lessons a try. Taylor ceases to amaze me with his growing sense of wonder and pure determination to understand everything that is going on around him. He was super pumped to go to swim lessons this morning, but also super caution when we got there. Marie was ready to get going, but Taylor took about 10-15 minutes on the side of the pool taking it all in. He wanted to know everything that was happening (and probably everything that was going to happen). With the aide of a couple of cool water toys (thank god they make cool torpedo water toys for boys), Taylor was drawn in to the first step and then finally ALL the way in. Today was a nice and easy introduction for both Taylor and Marie... get used to Mrs. Natalie (swim teacher), a new pool, and try to listen and learn about swimming. Heather and I sat off to the side of the pool (trying to not to interject any motherly worries-boy did I almost have one when Taylor was about to reach in after a toy and could have fallen in). All in all both kids did a great job-they're just so darn independent nowadays! They listened, they tried new things, and most importantly everyone was happy-no tears about anything!

So now back to transitions. A month ago we finally took Ta away for good and it's taken about that long to be reassured that Taylor was back on a regular sleeping schedule and was comfortable falling asleep on his own at naptime. So with that under our belts it was time to transition Taylor from his only bed he's ever known to a Big Boy Bed. With a few hours on the computer over the last several month searching toddler beds, twin beds, furniture stores, mattress stores, and Pottery Barn for new boy sheets, we were finally ready to take the "plunge" today and take the old crib down and put the new bed up. We've had the pieces (bed (we decided to go with a twin), sheets, and mattress) for a while now but I wanted to wait until I was home for summer to enjoy in the memory. Taylor had a blast helping Andrew out with putting it all together! Everytime he walked past his crib in pieces in the hallway he would say, "ah, my crib". It became very clear at that moment just how attached he had become to it. Two years is a long time in baby/toddler years! Once it was all put together he was so excited... bouncing on the bed already! The true test of course was if he was going to sleep in it and just as important stay in it. Well, all went well because he took a 2 hour nap. My heart did break a little when right before he fell asleep he said, "I don't want a big bed, I want my little bed". He definitely was a little nervous about the whole thing but eventually drifted off to sleep! At bedtime when I closed the door behind me, I looked back to see Talyor all wrapped up and snuggled in his new bed. He looked so small and the bed looked so big! Gosh they grow up too fast! Sorry for the blury pictures... my camera is broken and I'm using an old one:(