Operation: Big-Girl Bed, Part 1

We made the transition from crib to toddler bed today for Abby. And I'm not sure who was/is more excited....Nate or Abby! Nate kept asking when I was taking Abby to the grocery store, so he & Daddy could get to work on their "secret bed project." Cuteness.

A little background info: we moved Nate to a big boy bed (a twin bed) right after he turned 2 years old, b/c Abby was on the way and I needed the crib in the nursery r.i.g.h.t. a.w.a.y for decorating/nesting purposes. Check out this post to see how little Nate looks. Makes me sad!

Anyways, since Abby's current room is the size of a walk-in closet, we decided to just convert her crib to a toddler bed instead of trying to squeeze a twin-sized bed in there. I had talked about the change with Abby a little bit, but to be honest, it seemed to go over her head. (And like I said, Nate was the one more excited. I think he was in shock that his "baby" sister was old enough to get out of a crib.)

In fact, it wasn't until Abby talked to Nate on the phone that she really got excited about the new bed.

She & I were grocery shopping this morning, and I had to call Greg with a question. Abby motioned to talk to Daddy when I was done, but then Nate got on the phone instead of Greg. He told her he had "built" her new big girl bed and Abby got so excited. She started screaming "MY BED! MY BED!" in Walmart, and pretty much didn't stop till we got home. And oh yes this lasted all through a trip to Sam's too. Fun times.

Nate was SO proud to show her the "new bed" when we got home. They raced upstairs and immediately, Abby climbed in & snuggled under her new blanket.

Big brother didn't want to be left out, so he joined in on the snuggling. They read books together in bed and played up there until it was lunchtime. Sweet!

When it was time for nap, she refused a book and wanted to go straight to bed. We talked about not getting out, and she said "I good girl." Yeah, we'll see. (And - sidenote - with Nate we had a gate in the doorway, but it was a bit of pain so we are going to hold off on it...for now. Hopefully it won't become necessary to corral her into her room.)

Here's a timeline of how her first nap went in her big-girl bed (I was thoroughly entertained watching her on the video monitor. God bless the inventor of the video monitor!):

12:45 - go to bed
12:55 - sit up, with legs on the edge of the bed, start swinging them back and forth and singing. looks around a lot but doesn't get out of bed.
1:00 - lay back down, throw pillow on floor and lay on Fraggle Rock stuffed animal instead
1:05 - instead of getting out of bed, reach through bed slats for some books. pull those into bed and "read" outloud
1:15 - lay back down, fall asleep
2:45 - wake up and play with "friends" (stuffed animals) in bed
3:00 - stand up in bed and start jumping
3:05 - get more books out, but again, doesn't leave the bed
3:15 - finally gets out of bed and sits on the floor to read

I went in to get her at this point... and with camera ready, I asked her what she was doing. She replied "I get out!" and had a huge grin on her face. Love my sweet, sassy girl!!

Later in the afternoon, the kids were playing...yet again...upstairs in Abby's room. Nate came to get me and ASKED ME TO TAKE A PICTURE OF THEM! :) Here is what they were up to:

We took the kids to TCBY tonight for some celebratory ice cream. We are so proud of our big girl (and hope this good behavior continues)!

**Stay tuned for "Operation: Big-Girl Bed, Part 2 where I'll recap how her first night goes**