THINGS TOO AGGRAVATING TO GRAB THE CAMERA DURING: The Great Escape 2007

So it should have looked something like this. As the holiday wound down and the final guests spent their last evening wondering at all the chaos in the Stuber house, we had a touching evening of "night, night" and "luv you" and hugs and smiles and fond farewells as family bid the boys a good night. The ladies had already been tucked quietly away, storing their energy up for the 2:30 wake-up.And Patric took the boys tromping upstairs and checked diapers and put them in bed, and all was quiet. We swelled with pride as we were complimented on our bedtime routine. "Do they really just go to bed that easy?" Of course, we said. We have great kids. And as part of the great kid routine, we leave the light on after putting them in their cribs so they can flip through their books and chatter for a few minutes. Then we go in and tuck them in like burritos with their blankets and turn off the light. Except sometimes, we forget to go back and turn off the light.So some time later, there is a thump and we shake our heads because they are throwing books again, and we remember that they've been left with the light on for a little longer than usual. Patric goes up for burrito duty. And instead of winding-down-boys-ready-for-slumber, he finds Mr. Nicholas OUT OF HIS CRIB taking all of the parts for the crib-to-toddler-bed-conversion, which we've nicely tucked away under Ben's crib, and he's handing them to Ben--slats, packages of bolts, instructions. When he sees daddy, he runs toward him handing him various pieces and yelling "tank you, tank you," which is toddler for "please don't murder me."And our pride deflated, and he was tucked back in his crib. And ever since we are skeptical that thumps are not books but that thumps are boys making the great escape. We must now seriously consider toddler beds, and we so very much don't want to go to toddler beds.