Queen of the Trampoline...

It was inevitable. From the time that Emma became familiar with the famous siamese cat who thinks that he is a chihuahua, if you have small children than you probably guessed it, Skippy Jon Jones, the bed was doomed. Skippy likes to bounce and bounce on his big boy bed. Emma was two at the time and from the first time she heard the story she began to bounce and bounce on her big girl bed. Then came the book "Olivia Joins the Circus" in which Olivia pretends her bed is a trampoline and she is queen of the trampoline, and so began Emma's love of jumping on her bed. It was only a toddler bed, but every time you went in her room she was jumping, and she would say "I am queen of the trampoline, mommy." and I would say "Emma, your gonna break your bed and then you will have to sleep on the floor- not fun!" but she would only stop until I left the room and then I would hear the sounds of her poor bed straining to stay together while she bounced and bounced to try to touch the ceiling like Skippy or soar through the air like Olivia. We tried time outs and punishments and taking away her sleep toys, but she didn't seem to care. I even got her a book called "No more jumping on the bed" in which a little boy, jumping on his bed, falls through the floor in his apartment and ends up in the cellar. Emma didn't care, jumping was more fun and time out was short. "Emma... if you break that little bed, you will sleep on the floor- not fun!"

Lydia has grown up sharing a room with a sister who bounces on her bed daily so of course as soon as Lydia could stand up and walk she began to bounce also, then they began to bounce together and they would laugh and laugh as I fussed and complained " Someone is gonna get hurt." "You are going to break your bed.", but no one ever got hurt and the bed held on so they thought I was crazy until... yesterday!

The poor bed had had enough. It was naptime and everyone was supposed to be sleeping but not Emma. Emma was standing on the siderail and jumping down onto the bed (about a 4 inch drop) when I heard a crash and then all was quiet. I ran down the hall and into her room. Everything looked fine... Emma was laying on her matress with her blanket pulled up over her head pretending like she was asleep except that her bed was crooked and she was holding on to the broken rail to keep from falling on the floor. When I pulled back the blanket she was looking up at me with tears in her eyes, not because she got hurt, but because she knew that her mommy's warning had come true.

Needless to say her bouncing days are done for now, it is not as much fun to jump on the floor.