Seth's "NEW BIG BED"

Before I delve into explaining my title, is anyone else freaking out about how much you have to shell out when you stop for gas?  I paid $3.40 per gallon yesterday and was literally in a slight depression for about an hour afterwards.  I mean, Steve wanted a burrito from Chipotle for dinner tonight, for which we had a coupon that would make it FREE, but we still could not justify me driving 15 minutes away to get it because of gas prices.  To quote my beloved Mimi, eegad.

So ever since Seth graduated from the crib, which has been about a year and a half ago, he has been sleeping on a full size mattress on the floor.  At first, I justified this because it was lower to the ground and I didn't want him falling out of the bed.  But pretty soon, I just got used to his mattress on the floor and that was the way it stayed.  I don't know if it appeared odd to anyone else that came over and saw his room that he didn't have a "real" bed, but I sort of just got over it. I have been thinking about redoing his room lately because it hasn't really been redecorated since it was the nursery minus removing the crib.

Our friends Mark and Sam are moving into a new house, and their boys will not be sharing a room anymore.  So Sam (just to clarify, Sam is a girl) called me up and asked me if we would like to have their bunk beds.  Heck ya!  Steve and I have often talked about moving the boys together when they get a little older and moving all the toys into one room and making it the play room.  Consolidate the mess, I say!

We are so grateful to Mark and Sam for graciously giving us this furniture, because they could have easily sold it on Craigslist.  I have actually looked on Craigslist at beds just like this, so it is so nice that we were blessed with just what we wanted!

I didn't think about taking any pictures until tonight so Seth is asleep in his bed in these shots. It is sort of hard to see, but underneath the top bunk and behind the dresser drawers, there are shelves and this is Seth's favorite part of the bed.  He has all kinds of treasures stored up on these shelves.  There are books, matchbox cars, a ball, spoons, a shoe, blocks, etc.  If Caleb gets in there and starts messing around with the stuff on the shelves, look out!

I love that they are made of solid wood and very sturdy. One end has this cute desk where Seth can sit and color:

There are drawers down one side, and the ladder goes on the other side.  We have elected to choose NO ladder at this time for fear that Caleb will do a flying leap off the top bunk if he got up there.  I am still not completely certain that he won't find a way.

And here he is all snuggled down and snoozing:
I don't think we are going to be able to get rid of the Thomas pillow case and blanket even though we are going to be redecorating his room.  Seth is really attached to them.  But he also loves bears (as in Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see? by Eric Carle) so I think we are going to do something with that.

He hasn't had any problems with bedtime in his new bed, but he was getting up every night around 1 or 2am and crying and coming into our room because I think he was disoriented when he would wake up and find himself in his little cave. So the pictures that are on that wall inside his little cave are pictures I scanned out of one of his favorite books. My sister gave me the idea to put something on that wall that he liked that he could see if he woke up, and it has worked like a charm. No more night time visits from Seth!

The first day when we got the beds, Seth had been playing on them for a while and I told him it was time to go outside. He usually jumps at the chance to go out and play, but he was very enamored with the new bed and didn't want to go. I got him outside (after a bit of whining) and he played outside for over an hour. When we went back in the house, as soon as we walked in the back door, Seth got this funny look on his face like he just remembered something, and exclaimed, "Seth's NEW BIG BED!" and dashed off to his room.

In unrelated news, this was just too cute to pass up.