Transitions

Without any prior planning, all of us made a big transition this weekend. At the end of last week, E. J. said he thought it was a good time to turn Kathryn's crib into her toddler bed, meaning the front of her crib comes off, leaving it three-sided.

Whoa. Are we already at this point? Although it's less than three months away, I didn't think that we would be changing her bed until she was at least two. But with a little bit of hesitation, I agreed it was worth a shot.

On Saturday morning, E. J. removed the front her of crib and suddenly she was 21 years old, about to graduate college, and living in her own apartment. Okay, maybe it wasn't that drastic, but still, it was weird to see her crib transform into a toddler bed.

Saturday evening rolled around and it was time to put K to bed. I was a little nervous, especially because E. J. was working until 11 p.m., so I was on my own with this one.

After reading a book, I laid her down, tucked her in, gave her kisses and of course kissed her stuffed animals too (she demands that) and said goodnight. There were no tears. Great!

Thirty seconds later her door opens and she comes running out of her room, most likely amazed at her new found freedom. I promptly walked her back to her crib and tucked her into bed explaining that it was time to go to sleep.

After I left her room she came out again about a minute later. So again, I walked her back to her room and explained again that she had to shut her eyes to go to sleep. Still, no tears.

I texted E. J. to let him know that so far she had walked out of her room twice. He promptly texted back "just keep Super Nannying her". (Before K was born we saw an episode where the Super Nanny instructs the parents to be stern, but not mean, and just keep redirecting the child back to bed). And that I did!

Another minute passed and Kathryn came out of her room with her favorite stuffed little kitty covering her eyes because she knew she wasn't supposed to leave her bed. For the third time, I brought her back to her room.

Ten silent minutes had passed and I was in complete shock. After all, on Super Nanny the mom had to bring the kid back to his back like 30 times and here we were done at three!

Since I didn't hear any movement in her room through the monitor, I waited a full hour to go into her room so I wouldn't accidentally wake her.

Success!

She insisted on wearing a pair of my socks to bed

I was proud of both of us by the end of the night and I was extra curious to see how the morning routine would differ...

***

Around 8 a.m. E. J. and I were still sleeping. We were suddenly woken up by a strange knocking sound coming from Kathryn's room. We finally realized that she was knocking on her door to come out!

Mind you, she comes and goes as she pleases all the time, so opening the door is no issue. E. J. yelled from bed, "You can come out Kathryn, it's okay, come to mommy and daddy's room". To which the door quickly opened and she came running into our room. Yeah, it was one of those sickeningly precious and sweet moments.

Once nap time rolled around, she never left her room, but we did hear her doing something in there. I went to investigate and she had a bunch of books in her bed and was 'reading' to herself. Sweetness attack, again!

It seems she has taken the transition quite well thus far. Sunday night, she never left her crib and quickly went to sleep. However, at 12:45 a.m. Monday morning we woke up to screaming and found her half asleep on the floor. She made the four inch fall and was probably just scared and disoriented at that hour, but who isn't? She spent about two minutes in our room and was ready to go back to bed again. So far, so good.

Actually, I take my previous comment back. As fast as she's changing, she is 21 months going on 21 years old.