Cason's new bed

Several months ago, my friend Lacy got Josiah a new bunk bed. It is really cool with stairs instead of a ladder and a dresser on one side. When she told me about it, it got me thinking about how we would have to start thinking about a real bed for Cason sometime soon. He was perfectly content in his toddler bed so the thought really hadn't crossed my mind before. But once he saw Josiah's bed, he started asking for a big bed too. I really liked Josiah's bunk bed but one day I googled "bunk bed injuries" and after clicking a few links, decided that a bunk bed just wasn't for us right now. I could just see one of the boys pushing the other boy off the top. Or Rycie even diving head first off the top because he's a bit fearless.

So I started searching for a captain's bed because he has a small room and I thought the built in storage would be really handy. We even went to a furniture store to look at a captains bed I found online but were blown away by the prices. So then I just committed to checking craigslist every few days. I figured sooner or later a good bed would come along. I never found a good captains bed but about a week ago (day one of the ice storm), I found a bunk bed almost identical to Josiah's. I showed Kelly and he thought it was really cool and had me e-mail the seller. I still was apprehensive about getting a bunk bed for a three year old (with a younger brother) but they were including the mattress for the bottom full size bed and not the mattress for the top twin bunk. So we decided that we could just NOT purchase a mattress for the top for another year or two. We were hoping that the kids wouldn't go up there without a mattress and if they did, it would at least be a lot deeper and they'd have less of a chance of falling (or getting pushed) off. Hopefully we will turn out to be right.

We went last week to check out the bed and explained our situation to the sellers. We told them that we would have to rent a U Haul or truck from Home Depot to get it back to our house and that Kelly was leaving the next day for a trip and would they accept a deposit and then hold it for us for a week? They were so nice and offered to not only hold it for us but also deliver it in their own truck for free. We took advantage of the week's wait to get a quilt and sheets for Cason's new bed and sell his old crib/toddler bed on craigslist.

Speaking of craigslist, we have had the best luck on there this year. In January, we sold two rowers (ours and one for the gym) that we have been trying to sell since August. Thank you new years resolutions for people buying exercise equipment! We also sold Cason's crib/toddler bed in a matter of days. So then I decided to sell a stroller (we have FOUR and only really use two) and that sold in a few days as well. Then I listed a wooden airplane rocker and already have 3 people interested and will probably sell it by Saturday. With the rower, crib, stroller, and rocker, we have almost paid for Cason's new bed in it's entirety!

Anyway, they brought over all the parts on Tuesday night after Kelly got back in town and we got it put together on Wednesday morning. Cason loves his new bed and Rycie loves playing on it too. It's enormous and takes up his whole room but it's nice to have all the storage. And maybe Rycie can sleep on it too in a few years if they want to share a room at some point.



Each step of the stairs has a drawer. Right now Cason has random toys in most of them.



The other side is a dresser with five more drawers and a door that opens to three shelves.



The funny thing is that this week is the first time in his life that Cason has actually slept under real covers. Up until this week, he slept sideways in the corner of his toddler bed and would *maybe* have one blanket on him. I don't know how he didn't freeze at night.

Funny story - when the people came to buy his crib/toddler bed, I was helping the man take it apart. We took the side rail off and set it by the wall and Rycie said "ladder!" because of the rails, it looked like a ladder when it was turned sideways. Cason replied "Oh, that's just where you put your feet." Because he often had his feet on or through the rails when I came in to check on him at night.



I'm weird, I often take pictures of my kids sleeping so I had to get a picture of his first night in his new bed. Can you see him waaaay over in the corner?