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I lick my lips and give him a smile. “I promise you, I wouldn’t offer if it wasn’t something I wanted to do.”
He narrows his eyes, and I hold up two fingers.
“Scout’s honor.”
“You were never a scout.”
I shrug. “So.”
Colton laughs. “Alright. If you want to, that would be great. But no pressure.”
I grin and bounce up and down on my toes. “This is going to be so amazing for Teddy. You’re kidding yourself if you think there’s anything else I want to do today.”
Eventually, Colton wrangles his kid and the two of them head out to get a new big boy bed. While they’re gone, I shuffle into Teddy’s room and pick up all the toys he’s tugged out of place since I last picked them up on Friday evening. Then, I slowly and carefully inch his crib out of his room and down to mine.
Cribs need special tools to be taken apart, and I’m gonna leave that to Colton. But I still want it out of the way for now so that Teddy’s attention is entirely on the excitement of his new bed and not on the crib he’s leaving behind.
A few hours later, the Palmer boys return, and I can tell from the way Teddy is talking a mile a minute, his mixture of words and jibberish making me smile, that the kid is excited as hell about his new bed.
I leave it to the two of them to set everything up together but peek in to see how it all comes together when I hear Colton announce that it’s all done.
“Look! I’m a big boy!” Teddy shouts, jumping up and down on his new bed. “Big, big, big!”
Then he launches himself off the bed and into Colton’s arms, who swings him around as the two laugh together. Not wanting to intrude on their moment, I remain in the hallway, my back to the wall, just listening.
“You are a big boy,” Colton tells Teddy, his voice sweet and loving. “And big boys sleep in their beds all night long, right?”
There’s a pause, and I can tell just this one conversation isn’t going to be enough to solve Teddy’s nighttime issues.
“I like with Daddy,” Teddy responds, clear sadness in his voice.
“And I love having you sleep with me, too, buddy. I really do. But part of getting older is sleeping by yourself. It’s why you have your own room. Why I have my own room. Why Ms. Emily has her own room.”
Teddy’s quiet for a long moment. “But you were with mommy.”
My hand comes to my chest, feeling overwhelmed.
“I know. But now I need to sleep alone, and so do you. Okay?”
There’s more silence, and I can only assume Teddy nodded his head because I hear Colton speak again.
“Okay. Tonight will be your first night in your new big boy bed, which means you’re growing up. So I think you should be able to stay up an extra ten minutes.”
“Yay!” Teddy shouts, his fears momentarily forgotten.
“Now, do you want to keep playing in here, or do you want—”
“Play in here! Play in here!”
“Alright, I’m gonna head downstairs, okay?”
Colton emerges from Teddy’s room, eyeing me and tilting his head to indicate that I should follow him downstairs.
“Was that okay?” he asks me once we’ve reached the kitchen. “I don’t want to be too intense, but the things I’ve been reading about this say I should be firm and consistent.”
I nod. “It’s my main thing—consistency. He probably won’t stay in his bed tonight, or tomorrow night, or the night after. But if you help him see that you’re serious, it’ll eventually stick.” I reach out and tap his arm. “And I’ll be here to help, so you won’t be totally on your own.”
Colton takes in a deep breath and lets it out in one long go.
