Our BIG girl!

We have been very blessed that Maddie loves to sleep. The girl still sleeps 14-15 hours A DAY! It's SO nice! On top of loving her sleep, Maddie also loves her crib. Personally, I don't mind as it was MY crib. She has never once tried to climb out of it, and other than the tooth incident of '08, we've been very happy with her there.

But we are quickly approaching her 3rd birthday (where'd the time go!), potty training, and preschool and so I knew it was time to say good-bye to the crib. Joe took some serious convincing...she is his little girl after all. Thank goodness for Craiglist! I found her bed at a steal and Joe couldn't say "no" anymore. It took about a week to get all the bedding (between shipping and busy days with no time for shopping), but her bed was finally ready last Tuesday.

I was hoping that we could avoid the transition until the weekend in case it went badly. An extra pair of midnight hands is always welcomed. But Maddie would have NONE of it!! She wanted to sleep in her big girl bed!! Can't say I blame her, we talked it up so much, I'm sure she couldn't wait.

To our nervous surprise, Maddie did awesome!! We left her crib up just in case, but she has never looked back. We had to put her back in bed twice the first night (the last time the crib was threatened), but other than that, we heard nothing from her! The picture below is the morning after her first night. She woke up in the BEST mood!

"I all done sleepin'!" has been heard many mornings lately. She's SO cheery about waking up now!

Here she is at the end of naptime. Sulley (the blue stuffed animal) was not there when I left her...she was a busy girl!

And here's the permanent placement of her bed. We took down her crib on Valentine's Day. It was sad to see it go. But we'll see it again in another 25 years, God willing :)