big girl bed

Natalie has been officially a toddler for a while now and with that is some new found independence. Aside from rough mornings with temper tantrums, one major thing we knew we had to attempt with her was getting her to sleep in a toddler bed. I can only speak for myself when I can admit that I was a little nervous with it. What was the rush? But we knew that she was just getting too large for being boxed inside a crib. I thought it looked funny.
I have fond memories of James dealing with the switch well, but the first few nights were a little rough for him. For him, because he screamed quite a bit about it so I'm pretty sure he was freaked out by the idea, but still embraced it right after getting the screaming out of his system.
Natalie, I thought, was either going to put up a HUGE fight or embrace the idea with delight.
Oh thank goodness she was delighted.
This child immediately loved the idea as soon as she saw the crib rail come off. She dove into the bed with such energy and stayed there playing for a while that day (you remember right Jen?) And the happiness of it all never ended even while having to sleep in a new bed at my Mom's and then taking that same bed into our new apartment. She embraced it the whole time. And she only ever (so far) fell out once and went back to sleep that night quickly.
So, as of 23 months (4-7-09 to be all precise), Natalie has been sleeping in her big girl bed. And loves it.
4-7-09