So Beans here will be tuning 3 at the very beginning of January and his little brother, The Sprout, is due to make his entrance sometime next month. The Bean has slept in a crib his entire life and it is time he was upgraded to a big boy bed. Obviously, we need the crib for the Sprout. So, what do we get him? A toddler bed? A twin? A bunk bed? I’ll be honest, at first I was really tempted by those totally awesome toddler beds. My son isn’t allowed to watch anything but Thomas the Train or Mr Rogers (he gets to pick out maybe and hour of those shows – commercial free – a week. He just adores Thomas and we read from the Railway Series every night. So, that being said, I really wanted to buy him one of those amazing Thomas the Train toddler beds that are shaped like an actual Thomas train. They run about $400 new but I had seen a handful of them on Craigslist for $200-$250. I knew he would just be beside himself to get to “sleep in Thomas”. However, after much deliberation and consulting been-there-done-that parents, Husby and I decided it would be more sensible if we bought the Bean a twin-sized bunk bed. That way he could sleep on the bottom bunk for now and once his little brother is older they can share the bunk bed. So, I started looking for a bunk bed. The ones that were quality and adjustable designs were super pricy. I didn’t want to buy some piece of particle board crap from China, but I also didn’t want to spend a grand on a solid wood, American-made bed. Eventually I found a local manufacturer: The Bunk Bed Factory of Southern Oregon. For $350 the built me a fully convertible, solid Douglas Fir bunk bed. They brought it over last night and assembled it. I could not be more happy with the quality of the bed – Not to mention, our son LOVES it! The top bunk is rated for 400lbs, so Beans is super excited about inviting his Uncle Cub over to spend the night on the top bunk. My mom, whom the Bean calls “Ema” has bought our son some Thomas the Train bedding for a birthday gift and, likewise, Husby and I have purchased some additional Thomas decor for a present as well. Cant wait till Beans gets to open it all!