New Year, New Toddler bed

We made some changes this past week to usher in the new year. This was the best time to do it since I was off from work and Dean had a few days off as well. The first change leads into the second change..sort of. First off, we finally moved Ryan into his toddler bed. We thought the actual switching the crib to the toddler bed was going to be the easiest part, but of course, nothing is easy right? We bought a crib that is a 3-n-1, which means it converts to a toddler bed, then converts to a full size bed.  We picked up our furniture in August of 2007 while Ryan was still in the NICU. It didn't occur to us at that time, (I mean come on, we did have a few other things on our mind) to open ALL the boxes and check them out. So last week when we opened up the box that held the full sized rails, we thought the toddler rail was also suppose to be in there but apparently we were wrong. It wasn't there. So, I had to try and find the receipt--from 2 1/2 years ago!! Dean did some research and called the store that we bought the furniture from but it turns out they are relocating. Luckily, he was able to contact a store out of a different city and the lady did her research to find out how much it would cost to get a toddler rail. Well, it turns out, it was going to cost an arm and maybe 1/2 a leg to get the so called "toddler conversion kit"..which truly is just some hardware and a 1/2 rail that goes on the side of the bed-- it attaches to the side of what was the crib. If they had sold it to us when we bought the crib, no problem because we prepared for that cost at that time. Also, I couldn't see Ryan staying in his "crib" that much longer, whether or not we had the toddler rail up. Ryan is a mover when he sleeps. He likes to sleep sideways, diagonally and every other way imaginable. Converting his crib to a toddler bed would not give him any more room to sleep. So, we made the decision to buy a new bed. We knew what his room theme was going to be, so it was only appropriate that we buy a bed to match. Here he is taking a nap on his first day after Dean put it together:

Yep, we got him the Thomas the Tank Engine toddler bed. I love it! Ryan loves it! He has no problem going to sleep and staying asleep! At night. Naps are still a work in progress. He is excited about his newly found freedom of getting to walk around his room so of course he doesn't want to nap! Luckily, he still does wear himself out during the day from playing so by the afternoon, he is ready to crash. Thomas the Tank Engine accessories are hard to come by (no stores seem to carry much except the bedding), so accesorizing will be an ongoing thing for a little while. That is fine though, as we need to limit what we put in there for the time being since that will just distract him more and he really won't want to nap.

So, that leads into the second change. Since we were changes Ryan's nursery theme of Winnie the Pooh into a toddler theme of Thomas, some things had to go. Things other than just the decor. In order to do that, we needed to put the things we needed to get out of his room somewhere. The only logical place was the spare bedroom. So, Dean thought it would be a great idea to convert the spare bedroom (which only had a computer & storage totes in it) to a play room for Ryan. I wasn't sold on the idea at first, since that would mean I would have nowhere to store my junk..extra things. Dean had a plan though, so it didn't take me long to warm up to the idea. This meant we needed to move the computer into our bedroom and get the storage totes to where they needed to go--the closet or our storage unit. Once we cleaned out the room, we were able to move Ryan's bookcase in there & the rocking chair. We bought this:

 to store his books, some toys & puzzles: and then got a little television that we hooked up his Leapfrog My First Computer to so he can play his games. We will also be getting a cheap DVD player to hook up as well. My friend suggested decorating the room with the Disney Cars theme, since we still had several decorative items from his birthday party so that's what I'll be working on for the next few weeks. I've already put a few things up such as some shelves and this huge banner that we had at his birthday party:

 and I covered the pastel yellow gingham rocking chair with a large red throw. It will be a work in progress as far as I'm concerned, but Ryan could care less and so far is enjoying it.