The End of an Era

Picture this:

It's bright and early on a Sunday morning. Way too frigging bright and early. Bob is gone for a morning shift and I'm moving very slowly, possibly with a minor hangover.

I stumble into the bathroom and fire up the shower, intending to wash the cobwebs away and maybe infuse some life into my aging, sagging body. The water is steaming, inviting me to soak in the goodness. I open the curtain, step one foot in, and then...

BANG! THUMP!

Uh oh! The room next the bathroom is Rowan's...

I retreat from the soothing stream of warm water and lurch towards the bathroom door. I open it to find Rowan, crying her eyes out and clutching a fat lip.

The little bugger didn't feel like hanging out in bed anymore, so she crawled over the rail. Dammit! How did we get a tall, thin kid? I mean her parents are essentially hobbits without hairy feet (well, I don't have hair feet) and she's the toddler equivalent of lanky.

At any rate, I calmed the kid down - because thank God she has my tolerance to pain - and we went on with our day.

What's interesting is that only the day previous Bob and I were discussing converting Rowan's crib into the toddler bed. We weren't rushing to do it, since that gave Rowan the freedom to leave bed at her leisure and, lazy buggers that we are, we didn't want her tapping on our foreheads at 5am when we're trying to sleep. As usual with kids, she pushed the issue.

So while Rowan was occupied in the living room I grabbed the drill and promptly removed one of the crib rails. It really felt like the end of an era. My little girl is actually a little girl now, and with growth comes freedom and responsibility, no matter what I think. Sigh.

Discovering the "new" bed

Rowan was pretty excited with new development and was looking forward to trying it out. So before afternoon nap we had a chat, where I let it be known that it was not okay for her to get up and wander around, and that if I caught her out of bed when she was supposed to be sleeping, there would be consequences. She got the point, we have very good lines of communication at our house.

Nap time went, mostly, great! She climbed in by herself, to much fanfare and curled up. And there she lay for 90 minutes, until from downstairs I heard a (not so loud) thump, and went running upstairs. Turns out that she rolled out of bed as she was waking. She wasn't hurt this time though. In fact, I found her in bed, looking a little embarrassed.

The full night sleep was the real test, to see if she could stay in bed (awake or asleep). I was convinced that I was going to step out of the shower this morning to a smiling toddler, but nope, she was still out cold.

One of these days she'll figure out how awesome it is to be UNDER the blanket

I do love the fact that while getting dressed I could hear stirrings from Rowan's room, and then from down the hall, "Daddy, can I get out of bed now?"

Perfect, exactly what I was going for! I love that kid. And she loves us. And she really loves her new bed.

So while it is another developmental step for us, it's one that has gone smoothly so far, which makes it easier for this Dad to deal with. I guess you could say that we're all sleeping a little better.