A Test of Patience... and I Failed MISERABLY.

This has been one of the most frustrating days I've experienced in recent memory. McKenna is getting so big, and so mobile... I knew this day would come. The day when I'd have to move her crib mattress into the lowest position. This morning when I went in to get her, she was sitting up in her crib, I thought it might have been a fluke. Then after her morning nap, she was sitting up again... then this afternoon she was more talkative in her crib than normal. I went up there to investigate, and this is what I found: I chose to sit her on the floor with some books, and I headed to the garage to get some tools. McKenna now crawls backwards, so she had wedged herself against the wall which made her cry. I moved her into the middle of the room again, and went to work on the crib. I got out the instructions so I'd remember how to remove the drop side... that part was simple enough, except for the fact that the instructions were written by a non-native English speaker. That's where the simple process ended. McKenna has begun to have separation anxiety in the last few weeks, and that includes anytime she can't see my face (I am ridiculously good looking). I was on my hands and knees removing the ma tress frame, and she couldn't see all of me... she lost her mind. Here's proof: So after I rocked her for 10 minutes so that she would stop freaking out, we went to the basement together got the Pack N Play, put it in the guest room and I laid her in it... finally she fell asleep. One point Mommy.

I proceeded to go back to work on the crib, which I'm convinced was intended to be put together by gnomes, seeing as my hands are too big to fit between the legs and crib sides to screw in the ma tress frame. Not only are my hands too big, they provided me with an Allen wrench that is so small I could hardly get a grip on it. Once I got the crib a part, it look like a bomb went off in McKenna's room:
I wish I'd had a tape recorder to catalogue my inner monologue, but I fear it would have been censored by Blogger. It was that hard to put the thing back together. It took me an HOUR. For those of you who know me well, you know that I am pretty technical, I have never met a 'some assembly' required project that has bested me. This one almost did. Best evidenced by this picture (note that I put the drop side on backwards):
When it was all said and done, I was pouring sweat, wishing death on the crib's manufacturer and designer, and vowing to buy a new crib for the next kid because I'm going to have a bonfire to celebrate McKenna's move to a big girl bed. I swear I showered today, even though it doesn't look like it: I had apparently blocked from my little pea brain how difficult it was for John to assemble this thing in the first place. NEVER AGAIN.

On a lighter note, our friends JJ & Angie came up with their new son Daniel for dinner last night... here are some pics of McKenna & Daniel playing together and the proud Dad's with their kiddos: