One morning when our school reading time just wasn't working out too well, I remembered that Travis used to have what we called "crib time" when he was a toddler where I'd turn on some music and give him a pile of books to "read". I remembered him loving it and it gave me a chance to have a few minutes to accomplish something knowing that he was safely confined. And any mother of an almost-two-year-old boy knows that safe confinement is a very, very good thing.

So, that morning we revived crib time and my little Jack completely loves it. I'll tell him it's time for music and books and he goes running, climbing the stairs as fast as his little legs will carry him, starts the cd and begins tossing all of the books in his little basket right into the crib. It buys us a good 30 minutes to get our reading done and I think he sees it as his little mid-morning quiet time. And he's always excited to show me his books when I come to get him.

With a new baby coming we've been talking about moving Jack into a big boy bed (he's our oldest child to still be in a crib), but our new-found love of crib time has me thinking he might just stay in there a little longer. Baby won't need the crib for a while anyway. : )

Safe (and happy!) confinement joy...