Camping Out

Soon after we brought Mia home and settled her in her crib, I began asking, "At what age do babies outgrow their cribs?" I asked the ladies at the baby furniture store and sought the opinions of the authors of our multiple baby books. I was surprised that the answer I received over and over was:

WHEN SHE CAN CLIMB OUT OF HER CRIB.

I don't know about you, but as far as I'm concerned, that seems a little late. At least one book author (a highly regarded pediatrician, mind you) addressed my main concern by saying:

PUT SOME PILLOWS AND BLANKETS AROUND THE CRIB TO SOFTEN THE FALL.

Over the past few weeks, Mia had been worrying me just a little bit by hiking one leg up on the side of the crib as if it were a ballerina bar. Still, I was 99% sure she wouldn't be able to climb over the side. That changed last weekend after Jeff reported she'd almost made her big escape. She could put one leg over the edge and almooooost get her center of gravity over the rail. We could tell she was only days away from climbing over the side and suffering a near-certain head injury. We discussed putting rails on the twin bed in her room, and taking the crib rails off to convert her crib to a toddler bed, but we didn't like the idea of her wandering around in her room at night while we slept, climbing on her bookshelves and other attractive nuisances. We just can't make her room safe enough for that. We thought their must be a better option, so we did what we always do:

LOOK ON THE INTERNET

And there it was, the Crib Tent II. Highly recommended by parents of crib-climbers. Keeps the baby in and animals out. (Not that we were worried about animals.) Jeff called a well-known national big box baby store chain nearby and confirmed they had the item in stock. Since Mia doesn't like to be confined, but she does like the nylon play tent in her playroom, we decided the best strategy was to talk it up and make it sound fun:

LOOK MIA YOU GOT A TENT FOR YOUR BEDROOM!!!

This has more or less worked. Mia goes in the tent fairly willingly, though I usually wait until she is asleep before zipping up the side.