F*&#ing Disaster

We tried to take the side off of Rhys' crib.  I think you can tell from the title of this post how it went.  Here's the story.

A few weeks ago Rhys was kicking the side of his crib after we put him down for bed and so Brian went in there and "threatened" to take the side off.  Rhys' response?  "Ok."  Hmmm, that's not what we expected.  So Brian had to quickly backpedal on his threat...but not backpedal too far because, of course, at some point we do need to take the side off so we don't want Rhys to think of it as a terrible thing.  (I got to just listen to the whole conversation via the monitor - it was quite entertaining.)

After that evening, Rhys started asking for us to take the side off.  We told him we would do it in a few weeks and every few days we'd mention it and talk about it some more.  So, this past Sunday (my birthday, of all days) we did it. Rhys was super gung-ho about it until Brian actually did the deed.  As soon as Rhys saw with his own eyes what "taking the side off the crib" actually meant, he erupted into a massive and intense meltdown.  We tried to calm him down and convince him to at least get in  and try it out but it was futile.  So, we put the side back on.  And, then?  He had an even bigger meltdown/tantrum and started asking us to take it off again.  What?!  So, foolishly, we took it back off.  And?  Yep, you guessed it.  More tantrum and tears.  WTF.  So, we put it back on.  Of course at this point the kid was just beyond upset and nothing we did would calm him down.  It was awful.  I ended up taking Lorelei out for a walk and when I came home I could hear him still screaming from outside.  Oh my.  It was a really terrible way to end my birthday.

So, for now, our giant 2.5 year old will remain in his crib.  I have no idea how we're going to transition him to a real bed.  I think we might just have to buy him a car bed or something cool like that and get rid of any semblance of the crib at all.  Who knows.