The Coolest Bed Ever

My baby is turning 3 this weekend, and to celebrate, we let the oldest child dismantle the crib, and we ordered a new big kid bed.
I was thinking practically and had planned to get him a plain, wooden twin bed. A good bed that would last him until college...or at least until he and his brother have a jumping contest that results in irreparable damage to the frame, which could really happen at any time. The daddy, however, picked out and ordered a Lightning McQueen race car bed that will surely be the envy of every boy who has a bed that his MOM picked out.
This same daddy was conveniently in Chicago (a 5 hour plane ride away) when the bed arrived and was ready to be picked up and assembled.
My smallest friend and I rode to the store to get it and exchanged worried smiles when the guys rolled out a 8 foot box that almost outweighed her. It took some serious finagling to get it in the car, and by that I mean we had to wedge it to where we could strap down the hatch of the SUV and drive without the box flying out the back end. To accomplish this, we had to move our seats all the way forward, and I drove us home by steering with my belly while the two guys who helped load it stared in silence. I'm sure they had plenty to say about us after we left though.
My mother graciously came by to help me haul the giant pieces up the stairs and assemble the thing, which really wasn't too difficult until we got to the end when there was nothing left but the 700 pages of giant decals. Then my mother suddenly vanished.

Here's the thing about decals: it is a completely misleading term. I think of "decals" as removable. Not so much. These had super strength adhesive that could be used to attach a trailer to a truck in the event the hitch breaks. Thankfully the kids were in bed and were spared any unnecessary exposure to mumbled expletives when the decals would wrinkle or misalign, or the worst-curl up on themselves, sticky side to sticky side. There's also a learning curve to the placement process, and I would have faired better had I started on the side of the bed that's against the wall, but instead, my mistakes are in full view of all who enter the room. The bright blues walls surrounding the giant red race car though are enough of a distraction to keep visitors from looking too closely at my handiwork.
I was quite proud of the finished product, and since the kid was already fast asleep in his brother's room, I was tempted to sleep in the car bed myself, but I was afraid I would exceed the weight limit. Sure enough, the next day, I laid down to read a book to the kids on the bed, and a slat under the mattress popped out. The baby cried, "Mommy! You broke my new bed!" After I scooped up the remains of my ego, I fixed the bed, and now I guess I'll leave the cool race car bed to the little guy. I hope he at least appreciates that I still have adhesive on my fingers from putting it together...and now an E key stuck on the tip of my ring finger. But the bed is cool.