The crib we ended up getting for Phil was one of those Baby Tenda cribs. It’s kinda a neat crib. It has a door in the side, so in theory you can let your kid get in and out of bed by themselves as they get older with less chance of them trying to crawl over the side of the crib, falling to impending doom.

Our boy is 9 months old now, and is getting more mobile every day. He scoots around the house as much as possible, and is really interested in seeing how things work. A couple of days ago, I showed him the door in the side of his crib and it blew his mind.

I think a big part of that is that he loves our dog Betty, and spends a good deal of time playing with her crate when she’s outside. Opening and closing her crate door is pretty much his favorite sport. So finding out his own “crate” has a door made him supremely happy.

So let’s talk about what happened yesterday. I was working, Phil was napping. He woke up, and played quietly in his crib for a while. And then he got a tiny bit fussy, because hey lady it’s time to get up. And sometimes when muhmuh’s right in the middle of something, Phil has to wait a just a couple of minutes before getting out of bed.

Yesterday, that wait just didn’t cut it for him. He tried the door on the side of the crib and found that I hadn’t latched it completely securely. So it opened. And he got himself out of bed. Amazingly safely! When I came into his room to get him, he was on his way to the bedroom door. I’m rearuming to come play in the office, but he could’ve just as easily been on his way to go buy cigarettes.

Lesson learned: Phil is extremely smart; make sure that latch clicks when you close the Baby Tenda crib door. The end!