1,016 days

Yep. It was a mere 1,016 days

or

(2 years, 9 months and 12 days)

or

(24, 384 hours)

or

(1, 463,040 minutes)

ago

that we were he was doing this:

Building 3 cribs while I cooked our 3 babies. I remember this day as well as I did 1,016 days ago. 

My babies lived in these cribs for 888 days. 

They played in these cribs, they slept soundly in these cribs, they cried in these cribs. 

Oh, and they scaled the rails of these cribs, which brings us to today. 

Today, they came down. (I know, I know, they sort of came down once before, but only for a day so it doesn't count.) This time, there's no going back. 

Today was spent undoing. And stifling some "where has the time gone" tears, (mine) and watching my big girl help her daddy carry away her crib-the crib we placed her in when she was a mere 3 lb. 8 oz.

"You see that face, Hunter?" (Referring to mine.) "Remember it. You're gonna see that face many more times in your life." 

So beginning at about 10:00 this morning, Brian began the undoing process. One at a time, he took a crib apart and I carried it down to the garage where I placed them into various give away piles. 

Much the way she does with any of his projects, Hunter stayed close by her daddy in case he needed help. Okay, mostly just to check in and offer a "Hi Daddy" every now and again, and a "What doin, Daddy?" here and there, but she does enjoy helping. 

And his patience has grown tremendously the past 2 and a half years and watching him teach her how to turn the alan wrench just about melts my heart. 

The best part is the good job kiss she gets for helping! 

Alas, the remnants.

And I'll be honest, I wasn't going to post these videos, because I haven't been able to for the past year and a half or so. But purely by accident, I uploaded them using this new Blogger interface and son of a gun, it worked! So enjoy our lame videos! (Now that I know it works, I'll be sure to turn the camera the proper way so you don't have to crank your necks.) 

You didn't think the boys were going to stay away the whole time, did ya? 

They're like zoo animals who just got set free! 

I didn't want to discuss the filth that coated the walls where grubby little feet have kicked the past 888 days, but well, here we are. 

Washing walls. "Coton's feet dirty, mama." Yes, they are little girl. 

At this point, Brian decided to grab a chair so he could see about fixing their fan. In all her mightiness, she grabbed on to that chair and said, "I hold it." Seriously? I love her. 

And just like that, the cribs were gone.

The beds were there. 

And 4 hours later, 3 cribs had been undone and 3 beds had been constructed.

Camp Bunchkin is ready for business. 

If you ask me, the best part of this whole process was watching the mattresses come to life. They come packed like this-all rolled up and vacuumed sealed. 

You simply remove the outer packaging,

Then make a slit so that it can be unrolled, 

Then slit the packaging again,

And watch it fill with air! 

See how much it's plumping up and it's been just a second or two. 

Ta da! And just like that, we have.....

Camp Bunchkin! 

Unfortunately, the space between each bed is even less than I thought it would be...

So our big headed boys cannot even walk between the two beds without their heads getting stuck! (Go ahead. Just try not to laugh!) I suppose it's one way to keep them from getting too unruly up there! 

So...as cute as these little beds are, they pretty much don't care for them yet. 

Nap time was non-existent. 

And even though a tired little Hunter requested that she, "go take a nap" a whole hour and a half before her usual bed time, they are still wide awake up there. 

Losing steam, yes, but still wide awake. 

Taking turns getting stuck in between beds and jumping from bed to bed to bed. 

But that's okay. It's only the first night. Right???  :) 

Right??  :)