Date night ...

*Disclaimer: Ignore all the typos - I wrote this early in the morning after a night of no sleep. :)

We are blessed with sweet friends who offer to watch Claire Bear so Ethan and I can get out together. David, a college guy we work with in the student ministry who we love and Claire loves, came over to watch Claire so we could go out. We had an awesome date night last night full of great conversation and laughter. I love my husband.

Trying to make it as easy as possible on David, Claire was already in her PJ's with her milk and paci. I was sure that Claire would play for an hour or so and then beg to go to bed as she usually does.

When we returned home and asked David how it went his response was to laugh and say "Okay, so ..."

I wasn't even prepared for the story he was about to share ...

I knew she would show out for David because she's been doing that quite a bit lately with friends and when we skype with family. She does all her dances, sign language, hugs and kisses and funny tricks to entertain whoever is present.  Apparently she decided she would stay up as long as David would let her and she played until after 9:00. David knows we aren't crazy strict about bedtime on the weekends because we usually don't have anywhere to be early in the mornings. Claire has always been really flexible and a great sleeper. Honestly, her going to bed after 9:00 usually means she'll sleep late and we get to sleep in!

When David did put her in her crib it didn't go over well and she cried dramatically in protest. After a couple of tries, his instinct was to let her cry for 15 - 20 minutes and she finally seemed to calm down. He went into her room to check on her only to discover an empty crib. He panicked and then noticed a little body lying in the wagon in the corner of her room.

Ethan and I looked couldn't help but die laughing and try to figure out how in the world she got out of her crib and into her wagon. David said she also had taken her sippy cup, blanket, two pillows and put them in the wagon, crawled in and went to sleep. She loves her wagon.

I wish I had a picture to post but David said he was so freaked that she did that he grabbed her and put her back into her crib.

This was the first time she has climbed out of her crib but it wouldn't be the last. We woke her up with our hysterical laughter so we let her stay up for a few minutes until David left before putting her back down. So, of course, as soon as we put her down she climbed out again.

We rocked for a bit and put her back down, this time leaving the door slightly cracked and Ethan and I peeking through. Then we saw our crazy monkey hoist her leg over the side of the crib, grab the top rail and lower herself down until her feet touched the bottom bar of the crib so she could step down. We didn't know she had it in her! Because of Claire's nature I thought we had a few more months before she attempted this.

We had an unusually rough night with a little girl who seriously didn't want to sleep in her crib. So with sleepy eyes after church we'll spend this afternoon trying to figure out what to do about our monkey ...