This news just in...

...Peter is officially no longer a baby.

I thought Peter was pretty grown up when he stopped using the pacifier recently (although that was accompanied by a few days of screaming for 1 or 2 hours at a time in his crib). I didn't realize that there was another milestone out there that he had not yet reached. He reached it today.

I'm usually a heavy sleeper but I'm coming down with a cold so slept rather fitfully. This morning I woke up when Eddie left the house for work, then fell back to sleep. Sometime later at about 7:15 AM, I awakened again to the sound of Peter whining. Then I heard a door open and close followed by little feet running down the hallway. Startled, I opened my eyes and called out his name and then he appeared in my bedroom doorway. It was almost creepy in my half asleep state to see him, because I wondered if he was real! I was shocked that he had been able to get out of his crib but I hoped that it was a fluke. I changed his diaper and laid him back in the crib with his stuffed R.J. (from "Over the Hedge") and blanket. Perhaps he went back to sleep... I know I did... at any rate he was quiet for about an hour. As a precaution, I closed the hall bathroom door which has a child safety knob cover and put the gate up at the end of the hallway, just in case he escaped and I didn't wake up (though I left my door open so that I'd hear him). At 8:15, I awoke to the sound of Peter's door opening and even without my contacts in, I could make out his blurry little figure emerging from his bedroom. Just to see if he would do it again, I returned him to his crib and shut his door. Less than a minute later, it opened again.

Darn. Apparently Peter has mastered this concept and gone are my days of keeping the little monkey contained in his crib. I'm dreading naptime today!