Christmas came a little early in our home. This here? This — to me — was like Christmas.

Blessed be the crib tent. And bless those who invented it. (Dinosaur paper craft painstakingly cut out by big brother Porter.)

Backing up. If you’re getting my facebook or twitter feed, you may remember that I’ve mentioned our sweet babe’s recent quest to escape. Crew is two now, but still my baby. And for sure to young for a bed. But definitely old enough to have figured out how to climb out of the crib. In fact, he became quite the pro a couple weeks ago. So much that it became a game for him.

We would do our usual nap time routine. I sing & cuddle & talk to him & down he goes. I walk away. Less than a minute later he pitter-patters right up to my side, completely delighted in himself. I escort him right back to his crib, lay him down again, give him a pep talk about staying in the crib, and walk away. (What? Pep talks don’t work with toddlers?) This time he shows up by my side, still delighted, but his smile isn’t quite as big because he knows he’s not supposed to be there. Back to the crib again, and like a boomerang, he’s right at my ankles again.

Repeated 5 to 14 times per day.

Sounds fun, right? It is for Crew! I, on the other hand, want to cry. Do you know what this does to a mother’s sanity?

A while ago my friend Megan swore by her crib tent. I just didn’t make the connection but thought, “Good that it works for them.” And then I mentioned my frustration on facebook recently and it seemed hundreds of you said “Crib tent! Get the crib tent!” And then I kept putting off getting one for one reason: time. I needed to have time.

So I wrote it down on David’s honey-do list. (Yep, I really do that.) He’s better at researching products anyway. So fast-forward to now. We got this crib tent. It is installed. My toddler is safely zipped in every single day. I walk away knowing that he can’t climb out. And all of this? The result is a happier mama + peace of mind to boot. Can’t believe I didn’t know about it until our third child.

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Added note: Crew used to get his thighs stuck between the slats while sleeping sometimes … when he was smaller. If you look closely, you’ll notice the netting that encloses the whole crib, making it impossible to stick their legs through. We really could have used the tent months ago for that reason alone.

Also: I’m sure all crib tents are not created equally. Be sure to choose carefully. We’ve only been using ours a few days now, but we love it and can’t see any hazards or possible ways for Crew to un-do anything.

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Worth a whole blog post? Yep. Because someone will benefit from this. Parent to parent, sharing our best tips is what we do. Check back with me in about 8 years and I might be sharing my best tips on raising teenagers. Or you’ll find me curled up in fetal position.