Moving Up . . . and Moving Out

Moving Up!

This week we were given a twin bed (gotta love FreeCycle!), so Mara has officially moved out of her toddler bed.

I’ll admit feeling a bit sentimentally nostalgic about my little Mara moving up. But with Carissa learning to roll over and nearly stretching from end to end of the cradle, she really needs the crib (and Mara’s mattress) very soon. So it’s really a matter of practicality.

For Mara, however, this took a little convincing. Initially, she told me she wasn’t old enough for the big bed. “I’m not four yet!” she said, and then she lay down to demonstrate that her feet only went halfway down her toddler bed. So I lay down on the big bed and showed her that my feet only went halfway too. (Occasionally being short comes in handy.)

Ironically, then she began wondering out loud, what she would do when she grew out of her twin bed, and immediately decided, “I guess I will just have to sleep in Mommy and Daddy’s bed when I grow out of this one!”

I assured her it would be a long time, if ever, before she grew out of this bed.

We put the toddler mattress on the floor in front of her bed, just in case she fell off. She didn’t.

We talked about working towards keeping her Easy-Ups dry and going all night. And Friday night she did it. She was so excited Saturday morning when she came in our room and announced, “My Pull-Ups are dry! because I got up and went potty four times!”

I’m proud of her. She’s growing up!

Moving Out?

Over the past few months, Scary Things have appeared in Mara’s room after dark. She never gets out of bed at night to tell us about them, but she will tell us in the morning.

So I will go with her into her room and ask her: “What things in your room are scary?”

“Well,” she’ll begin. “Like this basket.”

“That’s not a scary thing,” I’ll say. “See? Just a basket with some cute little [stuffed] animals in it.”

“Nooooo,” she’ll say (as if I just don’t get it). “They’re not scary now. They turn into scary things!”

But good news! Those scary things may be on their way out! On Monday night she slept in the big girl bed for the first time.

Tuesday morning, she reported: “You know what?! There were NO scary things in my room last night! . . . I think the scary things knowed I had a new bed, so they ran away outside!”

The power of a new bed!