Big Boy Bed

Ben is finally in a real bed! Whew.

Bedtimes have taken on a whole new adventure now that we have 36 rounds of "back to bed Ben". 
Water, wet diaper, questions, monster, owl in the window, one more book, 2 more songs, 10 minutes of laying down with him, hurt finger.... they go on. And on.

To date we have tried putting him to bed with one bedroom pass, where he can get out of bed for something. After that  he  is in bed to stay. Nope. We have tried putting back to bed without engaging in conversation over and over. Nope. We have tried putting a childproof door stopper on his doorknob. He yells so loudly Jacob wakes up...so...nope. We have tried shortening daytime naps. Nope. We have tried a bribe box of treats the next morning when he stays in bed. Short lived. Then we got out the playpen and set it up in his room. If he gets out of his bed...a privilege... then he has to stay in the play pen...where we know he is safe and not wondering around. He was not happy. He cried. We, after exhausting every other option we could think of decided to stay firm. He wasn't happy but neither we we. We couldn't do this until midnight every night.

"BUT IT HUUUUUUURTS!!!!"

Huh?

Great, another tactic. He was really crying now and I thought, fine...there better really be something!
I went in to find the playpen, underneath a chalkboard that is hanging out of his reach normally. There used to be a bulletin board in his room for his art that I took down when we put our house up for sale. On the chalkboard ledge I had left the push pins for the board when I took his art down.

Now they were all in the playpen. He was up just high enough, we didn't realize to be within arms reach of the ledge. Ben was pathetically huddled awkwardly in the corner trying to find a tackless spot.

"This bed Huuuuuurts meeeeee!"

I was trying to swallow my guilt and my laughter at the same time and chocked out..."well, should you try your much more comfortable big bed then?"

He agreed...and it seems to have done the trick. I wouldn't however offer a "playpen lined with thumb tacks" as a suitable piece of parenting advice obviously...but it however accidentally seems to have worked for us!