Escape Artist No More

Matthew is a climber. The child has been climbing ladders with ease since 11 months old. We knew we were in trouble with this one, but I was still praying that he wouldn't figure out how to climb out of his crib; unfortunately for me, Matthew did just that last week. I heard him gibbering away in his crib so I went to get him up from his nap, but apparently I didn't come fast enough because as I opened the door he was just about to lower himself over the side of his crib. Nice. On Saturday I never even heard him climb out of bed, but about 30 min. after I put him down for his nap I heard a banging noise and discovered not only was Matthew out of bed, but he'd been playing in his room for quite some time. I popped him back in bed only to hear him banging around again, this time he decided it would fun to empty out his sock drawer and even deposit some socks in his diaper champ. Back into bed he went for the third time and thankfully this time he fell asleep. So what to do about the monkey climbing out of his bed?!?! He's definitely not ready to handle a toddler bed, as evidenced by Saturdays shinanigans, and I'm not ready to play such games so the search began for a crib tent. The bad part is we have a convertible crib in which the front and back of the crib become the head and footboard for a full size bed, so finding a crib tent that will work is not easy. I read some reviews and someone mentioned that a certain brand tent actually fit on a convertible crib so off on an online search I went. I happened upon an ad on craigslist and it was the exact crib tent I was looking for at a fraction of the cost! We picked the tent up today and I rigged it up the best I could before nap time - I have to add some additional velcro on the straps so they actually go around the crib more securely since the tops of his crib rails are thicker. Matthew thought the tent was all fun and games until it came time for him to take a nap, then he was perturbed that he couldn't get out! We'll see how long it takes until he figures out how to unzip the tent, because it's just a matter of time until the monkey figures that out too!