Big Girl, the final phase

It's completely official now -- we have no more babies in this house! I already posted about Carly being potty trained (so awesome!) and now we've made the transition into the full size bed and out of the crib. After our Austin trip we did a countdown of nights until the "crib fairy" was going to come and take Carly's crib away to another baby who needs it. I kinda stuck my foot in my mouth with that one, because she wanted to see a real fairy! I backpeddled my way through a story comparing the crib fairy to Santa Claus -- she only comes after you are fast asleep. Daddy took the crib apart and out to the garage and the crib fairy came that night and took it away (to the attic).

When Caleb made the transition at 18 months, it. was. torture. Getting up 873 times a night, waking up at 4:30 am for the day, turning on the TV at 2:00am.. it was out of control! I was also about 5ish months pregnant with Carly, so that made getting up in the night even more fun. So we expected the absolute worst this time around, since Carly is our "spirited" child. (That role is fast diminishing with the emergence of her brother's horrendous state of four-year-old-ness. I'm just saying. It's the worst. stage. ever.)

First night, Carly was a little freaked out. For about a month the bed has been set up in her room next to the crib. We figured with her being as independent as she is, she would quickly shoose the big bed. Wrong. The first afternoon nap lasted 7 seconds and she asked to get back in the crib. I didn't push her, and put her in the crib. She never chose the big bed after that, until the crib fairy came. That first night she looked around in bewilderment and snuggled into the far corner of the bed and laid face-down on a pillow and didn't move. At all. I think she was scared outta her shell but wouldn't say anything. Think about being 3 feet tall in a wide open space for the first time. She slept the whole night through and woke up happy and triumphant the next morning. We haven't had any problems at all with her getting out of bed or playing. She knows the rule. DO NOT get out of bed unless you need to pee or poop. That's it. So far she's followed it too, and gotten out of bed a couple of times to go potty. Such a big girl!

And, after the 2 am TV watching incident a couple of years back, we've evolved as parents enough to know that's what spring-mounted baby gates are for! Duh!