The Mystery of the Bloody Feet

Last night was Robbie's first attempt at sleeping overnight in the "Big Boy Bed." We had tried it at nap time too and it was an utter disaster.

He pretty much considered the bed a cool place to chill as long as he was entertained. As soon as I would turn my back he was out and running around.

We went through the usual routine of stories and talking again and again about how he has to stay in bed...but 10 minutes later Toby went to investigate and Robbie was out of bed again - only this time he had started screaming bloody murder and shouting for "mommy".

I came running up the stairs asking what was wrong and Toby said he though he was frightened because that's how we was screaming - not "temper tantrum" crying but "help me I'm dying" crying. It was dark, so we didn't immediately see the problem, but after a minute I saw that there was blood all over both of his feet...and my hands...and my shirt...and Toby's shorts.

We flipped on some lights and couldn't see where the blood was coming from and there wasn't any on the sheets or bed but there was a little on the carpet. We inspected his feet and couldn't find any gashes that would justify that kind of bleeding. After a lot of searching I found one super tiny nick on the outside edge of his pinky toe. It wasn't bleeding anymore but we decided that had to be the problem.

We looked all around the room and in the carpet for the culprit and came up with nothing. We checked the carpet, the bed, the bed frame, the bed rails, everywhere.

By this time Robbie was calmer and insisting he sleep in the Big Boy Bed and not the Little Boy Bed. We put him back in bed and he slept all night without getting up once.

Then this morning while we were all getting ready he explained the mysterious injury in his toddler-esque combination of charades and words.

Apparently he had gotten out of bed to shut the door (he always sleeps with it shut but I had it open because of the new bed and wanting to hear if he was up). When he shut the door, the bottom of it nicked his toe and, apparently, he kept rubbing his feet together because one of them hurt - thus blood on two feet. This was right when Toby walked in and picked him up (blood on shorts) and handed him to me (blood on shirt).

So the moral of this story is: if you're having a hard time getting your toddler to stay in bed, just sprinkle thumb tacks all around the carpet. Then they'll be too afraid to get down.