The first major battle begins

I have discovered through my first son that choosing when to introduce kids to various monumental development items such as toilet training and transitioning to a toddler bed comes down to one thing, when parents are willing to do battle with their kids. Sure kids themselves will give clues as to when they are ready but no matter how much a kid may seem to be ready to move onto achieving a major milestone it rarely comes without a fight.

After a very brief discussion with my wife I decided that this past weekend was a great time to begin the war of getting my youngest son into a toddler bed. There was no dire need to start this 'adventure' now as he has not taken to daredevil stunts such as climbing out of the crib or anything else that would warrant this transition to start post haste. He seems to enjoy my older son's bed so I thought he would enjoy his own, which he does, just not necessarily to sleep on.

Saturday night was the night the toddler bed was introduced and it seemed to go rather well as he did not fuss much more than usual, a little but not too much. This was a good sign but when it comes to kids I always seem to be wary and the next day it proved to be warranted. Nap time in the toddler bed was difficult and in fact it never happened. After listening to my son stomp around the room and several resets, it was evident the crib was needed. Then at bedtime, he might have been put to bed too early and after about an hour of fussing and crying out, he finally fell asleep, not in the bed but at the gate in the doorway.

For at least a month prior the signs seemed to point to introducing a toddler bed but now that my son has it, he doesn't seem to like it, or at least, he doesn't like to sleep on it. We are hoping this will be a small battle and not a war but we have some tricks up our sleeves (i.e. some things we can try add or remove) and are ready for the fight if it gets serious. We have been through this fight once before, he hasn't and we have the biggest weapon on our side, his desire to be like his big brother.