New World Order

Hi all, this is mom here. I thought I should fill you in on our lifestyle altering past few days. As you already know, Otto figured out how to both climb out of and then back into his crib. The child is part monkey I am convinced. So after the amazing display of climbing skills we thought it would be a good idea to modify his crib so if he did decide to climb out, he wouldn't be hurling himself over the edge to such a drop. The front side of the crib comes off and it converts to a toddler bed. Since we didn't want him to roll out in the night we borrowed a bedrail to help keep him in. It is much lower than the side of the crib and if he decided to climb out he wouldn't hurt himself was our thought. So yesterday he took a nap in the new set-up and all went well. When I heard him making noise like he was waking up I went in and he was still in his bed, race car in hand of course. So last night we put him down to sleep and all went well. He slept the whole night and woke up around the normal time. I heard him starting to move around and begin to talk to himself so I got up and brushed my teeth etc.... I could still hear the monitor but there really wasn't much noise coming from his room other than a few wake up sounds. As I was walking out of the bathroom into our room, through our door busts Otto running full speed ahead laughing his head off. Eric was still in bed half asleep and it scared the crap out of him. In fact we were both totally caught off guard. Otto was so happy with himself he could hardly contain himself. He was literally jumping for joy.
So there you have it, our lives have changed forever. Otto can now get out of bed whenever he wants to. How did this happen? He is only 18 months old! I have friends with 3 year olds who are happily still sleeping in their cribs! One thing, we were planning on moving him to a big boy bed this fall so that we can use the crib for the new baby. I was worried that he would feel displaced by losing his crib, but he has clearly shown us that he is ready for the next step! Whether or not Eric and I are still stands to be seen. Needless to say when we go to bed tonight we will be closing all of the baby gates and sleeping on full alert!