Toddler Bed!

Yesterday morning, in an effort to be productive, no sooner had my little monkey emerged from her crib than we set to work dismantling it. Yessir, it's time for the Cowfam to experience the wonder of a Toddler Bed. Really it's just a crib with one side removed, but the significance of this moment represents a much more profound transformation. 

We no longer have a helpless little infant who needs to be safely ensconced within four walls whenever we're not present. 

We must now fall asleep each night, trusting that the little person that is most precious to us will stay in her bed, without falling onto the floor in her sleep or, I shudder at the thought, find her way to the stairs in the middle of the night. 

We have a little girl who is starting to outgrow things faster than we can keep track. Toys, diapers, cribs...it is only a matter of time before she outgrows mom and dad, and I'm weepy at the thought.

We hung onto the crib for much longer than some, and as many of our friends made the switch we thought about when we would follow suit. We've been lucky. E is not much of a climber, and not much of a rebel. She's been happy in her crib. She'll often want to stay in her crib and play when she first wakes up, where most toddlers would be tearing around the house before breakfast. So we weren't in any hurry to move her from a place of safety and peace of mind to being one step closer to the great unknown. But this is just one in a long line of lessons in letting go. As parents, we will be doing this time and again for a lifetime, and as baby steps go, this one was bearable. It helped that E was over-the-moon excited about the whole thing. 

This morning, I expected to be woken up by a tug at my arm and a voice in my ear urging me out of bed. Instead, it was the same as every other morning, with a little voice down the hall announcing "My clock is yellow!" I'm sure it won't be long before she fully grasps the scope of her newfound freedom.