Growing up too fast

Last weekend, we moved our little munchie into a big girl bed.  Since Anne Louise and Herbie Jr. will eventually share a room, we just took the headboard off of our guest bed  (which is a queen bed and obviously HUGE for AL) and moved it against the wall.  At some point, AL’s new room will go back to a guest room, and AL and Herbie Jr. will get new matching twin beds.  For now, AL has a bed as big as a bouncy house.  I had to include pictures because this thing is SO rigged up to keep her from escaping, and its too hard to explain (and too funny-looking to not document).  We have rails, bumpers, pillows, stuffed animals, and all kinds of ticks to keep Anne Louise from getting out of the bed. 

The first night we put her in the bed, we didn’t have all angles blocked.  We learned our lesson, quickly.  Anne Louise didn’t cry really, but she did crawl out.  Then, she’d scamper across the floor.  She can’t open the door (yet), so she, being the innovative child that she is, she would then knock.  It was hysterical.  We’d walk in, put her immediately back in bed and say “night night” (all while one of us was watching on the monitor), and then shut the door.  She’d stay in her bed for a little bit, crawl out, pitter pat with her little feet to the door, and “Knock, knock.”  It was so hard to keep from laughing.  But after going in ONLY about 15 times, she finally fell asleep . . . sitting up.  But she slept through the night and woke up around 8:30 (her normal time on a Sunday).  I was a little nervous about nap time, but she stayed in bed (thanks to the fact all sides of the bed were now blocked) and took a great nap!  She hasn’t been back in her crib since!  In fact, we now refer to Anne Louise’s old room as “the baby’s room.”   The first day that I told Anne Louise to take “Piggy” to her room, and she actually went to her new room was bittersweet – I’m glad she adjusted to the big girl bed so well, but part of me wishes she was still a crib baby – unbelievable that she is growing up so fast!

Here are some more pictures of Anne Louise in her Big Girl Bed.  You’ll notice the book “Goodnight Moon” in her bed.  It is by FAR her favorite book.  She asks for “Moon” every night.  And sometimes says, “Again.”  After I read “Moon,” she then says, “Daddy sing?”  That’s when Daddy comes in, sings a song, and puts her down.  Its like clockwork, and if you forget a step, Anne Louise will remind you.  After “supper,” she immediately asks, “Bathtime?”  Then its, “Moon? Moon?”  Then, “Piggy?  Paci?  Daddy sing?”  Finally, its “Night, Night Mama.  Night, night Daddy.”  She’s got the routine down (including the going to sleep part!). 

I can’t believe she is already in a big girl bed and not even 19 months old!  Its going by WAY too fast!  But JUST when I think she is growing up, she picks out the clothes that she wants to wear and looks like this:  AL asked Aunt CC to put on the boots with the PJ shorts one night right before bedtime.  Considering Aunt CC used to wear oversized sweatshirts as dresses with cowboy boots when she was 4, CC didn’t question the outfit and of course put it on.  Anne Louise – when you grow up and see this picture, blame CC . . . not your parents.