what a big boy!

This has been a big week for Benjamin! First, of course, he turned 3! He's not quite sure yet how this age thing works, though, because several times a day he will ask me, "Me still 3, Mama?" LOL! I tell him he'll be 3 for a long, long time (even though I know the year will go by in a flash for me!)

On Sept. 21st, I took a photo of him in his crib, since I knew he wouldn't be in it much longer. As you can see, he was only sleeping in half of the crib (with his feet sticking out!)... he had toys, books, etc. piled up in the other half!:

On Sept. 22nd, Ben attended his second day of ABC Playschool, which is just a little 40-minute class he has on Mondays. Last week did not go so well ~ he cried and cried when I dropped him off, then sat in the corner the rest of the time, not participating in anything. This week, however, went much better. There were no tears, and he even had "a little bit" of fun, according to him, LOL. They did some painting ~ here he is with his masterpiece!:
Yesterday, Sept. 23rd, I did a bunch of cleaning and rearranging in the boys' room. Here's how it looked before I moved things around. Looking south:
Looking northwest:
I spent a total of 5 hours rearranging and putting Ben's new big boy bed together. Here's how their room looks now. Looking southwest:
Looking north:
Looking northeast:
After all that, then I had to deal with Ben's naptime, and the novelty of a bed vs. a crib. (Benjamin only ever climbed out of his crib once. He fell and got an owie, and never tried again! LOL! I know I've had it easy with him in that area ~ both Em and Nick got out of their cribs constantly from the time they were 2 until they got beds at 2-1/2!)

Anyway, we had a big talk before naptime about what I expected from him, and I have to say that it was definitely the smoothest transistion to a bed of all 3 kids! He did get out of bed several times (I could hear little footsteps upstairs for half an hour or so), but he stayed in his room like I'd asked him to, and he did eventually fall asleep on his bed! (Note all the things he brought into bed with him, LOL!):

Bedtime at night went pretty well, too, especially considering how excited Ben was to be sleeping under Nick. He talked and talked and talked to his big brother, but only got out of bed once. And, after he fell asleep, he stayed in bed till he woke up this morning at 7:30! :)

Here's a picture from today. Ben loves his big boy bed!!: