New Digs

Claire made an early transition from her crib to a bed. She was only 20 months old, but we were getting ready to move into a new house and I wanted to keep "new" things to one thing at a time, so I moved her out of her crib about 6 weeks before we moved out of our house. With Claire it really wasn't a big deal - at 18 months she could walk down the stairs, retrieve her sippy of milk and a yogurt out of the fridge, get a spoon, climb in her booster seat and have breakfast while Jason and I were still sleeping. While it was nice, it was also a little scary. But she was always very independent and really still is. Chloe is a different story. At 26 months old, she is just now climbing onto the couch by her self. She doesn't get stuff from the pantry, and asks for help with about everything. I was afraid that she'd form an attachment to her crib if I left her in there for a long time, so I decided to boot her out.

I ordered her new furniture and bedding a few weeks ago, and a week before it all came in I listed her crib furniture on Craigslist. Within hours, we had several calls and 2 days after publishing the ad, the stuff was sold. The family wanted to come pick it up pretty quickly - about 4 days before Chloe's new bed would be delivered. Thankfully, we called and were able to shorten the wait to just 2 days. That still left 2 days of Chloe having no bed to sleep in, so I gave in to Claire's begging to let Chloe sleep with her in Claire's bed. Jason thought I was nuts.

Night one: We get them to bed late, around 8:20 after shoving Claire's bed up against the wall so Chloe couldn't fall out. 8:30 - potty trip. Chloe tags along with Claire to observe. 8:40 - Claire is caught red handed in the bonus room, getting Chloe's Baby for her. 9:00 - Claire starts wailing that Chloe punched her in the nose. Chloe looks very guilty and says "sorry, Taire." I threaten them that one more sound and they will be separated. 9:01 - not another sound until morning.

Night two: Again, they get to bed late, around 8:15. 8:16 - not another sound! I was very impressed!

Once Chloe's bed was setup and it was now bedtime on Night 3, she protested having to sleep alone in her room and asked to go back into Claire's room. Thankfully she didn't really have her heart set on that, and settled down to sleep in her new bed. Each night since then (and every nap,) she has gone to bed without a sound and called for us to come get her in the morning. Much different then Claire coming down to make breakfast for the family!

So, the transition to the big girl bed was super easy and painless. We (Jason) worked this weekend on moving wall hangings, filling holes in the wall and spot painting. Everything is coming together, although she has much more furniture storage to fill up!