porter's "big boy" checklist

as if my sweet little boy wasn't growing up fast enough for me, i am forcing him to grow up even more. i have a checklist of things to accomplish with him before baby 2 comes, and to me they are three major accomplishments. (1) potty training (2) get rid of bottles and (3) move porter from mom and dad's bed into his own big boy bed. my reasons are obvious- i don't want two kids in my bed, i don't want porter taking his baby brother's bottles, and i don't want to be changing two diapers.

you know it is kind of funny the things that we parents put ourselves through. for example, i put off taking the binky away forever because i was so terrified of what we would go through, and really it wasn't hard at all. the bottle. at around 12 months i began giving porter sippy cups and he could have cared less whether he was drinking from a bottle or a sippy cup. but i couldn't figure out the complicated sippy cups i had bought and they were always leaking, so i was lazy and just gave him bottles for the convenience (and cleanliness) of it. now fast forward one year later and he wants bottles only. we will just have to get rid of them all together, but i can tell it is a comfort item to him, and probably became even more of one after we got rid of the binky.

porter has been sleeping with us for some time. in the middle of the night he can be found with his head in one of our sides, and his feet in the other one's side. he kicks hard and lately it has been right in my growing tummy which scares me to death. i have sworn to myself at 3am that tomorrow i was buying him a bed. for a week i looked on craigslist and ksl for a good deal on a cute bedroom set, and monday i finally found what i was looking for. tuesday we got it all set up, and porter went to the store with me and picked out a car & choo choo train blanket/sheets. i was glad the one he liked was not only cute but also only $12. score. he went to bed at 9pm tuesday night, and didn't wake up crying like i imagined he would. in fact i was up at 7am waiting for him to wake up, but he didn't. he kept sleeping, all the way til 9am! i can't even remember the last time he did that! last night he slept again all through the night and woke up after 8am, happy as can be. i am a worrier so i was checking on him periodically throughout the night, and he was always in the same position, which surprised me. in our bed, he was here and there, upside down and all around. so, another milestone i dreaded and worried about was as easy as cake, and turns out i think my sweet boy is a lot more comfortable this way. once i'm sure he is comfortable being in his big boy room and bed, we will start working on having him put himself to sleep instead of one of us laying with him. add that to my checklist.

so, here are some pictures of my "baby" who looks so grown up in his big boy bed.