With the long weekend ahead of us, DH and I - okay, mainly me on a whim taking the toddler rails back out of our closet and reinstalling them on the crib myself this afternoon - have decided to tackle the monumental task of transitioning DS. I made sure he had a nap this morning with the crib front still on that lasted a good few hours but now we've hit the difficult part. An overtired toddler who keeps coming to the door.

We have a gate across the front of the door. Tape across the lock so he can't shut the door locked closed. Unfortunately we don't have a nightlight he won't bother so the room is pitch dark. He can see the light from the living room and I -think- he can see his father but he can't see me. He can hear us talking quietly and our television show but he just stands there. Whines a little. Waits. Whenever I go to the door, he walks over to his crib, climbs in, lays down when I tell him to - I shut the door, I go back to the living room and then I hear it.

The door creeps open. The dog's music gets louder. He isn't afraid of the dark, the dog has a light in the belly of it that he -knows- how to push. He's just being... stubborn.

I'm trying to ignore him. Hubs is taking my lead. But I'm at a lost. It's nearly eight o'clock. Please please please help me be strong on this one. Any nice words would be most welcome (or advice!)

ETA: DS is 19 months. He's climbed out of his crib a few times, keeps trying to climb into his sister's crib... it just seems like a good way to coax him not to climb if he can get in and out as he pleases. He's slept in the crib with the rails up before but at night we crumbled. It was nearly a month ago. He's also slept on the mattress on the floor for a nap before.