Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Birthdays, Summer School, and the Big Girl Bed

Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday dear Grampy and Aunt Cheri,
Happy birthday to you!!

We love you both so very much!

***

Not knowing much of anything about the summer school program The Princess started yesterday, I sent her on the bus armed with a note to her new teacher.  The note included general information about her, as well as some more specific stuff, and was accompanied by a handful of Pull-Ups.  The outside pocket of her backpack was stuffed with snacks, just in case, and her brand-new mini-Bah giraffe keychain was clipped to the outside in case she needed something to play with on the bus.

I needn't have worried.  Miss Ashley, the second teacher in Mrs. G.'s classroom, is in charge of the summer program.  The Princess already knows her, which is a huge plus.  The day will be structured very much like it was in her regular classroom, so she should be cool with it.  The only point of concern is whether or not she'll last through the longer days consistently...I guess only time will tell on that one.

Five hours after she boarded the bus, she returned home.  She wasn't overly, well, anything...it was a rainy day, and it seemed as though she'd been staring out the window for quite a while.  Once we got inside, she was in a fairly good mood, and she was extremely interested in what I had been doing while she'd been away.

This was the first time I'd had so many hours with her at school.  What, you may ask, did I decide to do?  Well, I figured it was high time to ditch the toddler bed in favor of the Big Girl model.  I trudged through the battleground that is her room, cleaning and sorting toys as I went.  I dismantled the toddler bed and brought my old twin set up from the basement.  I carefully placed and replaced - and replaced again - all of the furniture in her room.  I made the bed with adorable hot-pink sheets that have the "cutie" versions of the Winnie the Pooh characters on them.  I put her very favorite Friends and her prized blankie on the bed to welcome her when she came home.  I finished seven minutes before the bus was to arrive.

Endlessly entertained with the changes that had happened while she was at school, The Princess just had to check everything out.  Not five minutes after she went into her room alone, The Hubbs and I heard an enormous THUD, followed by what we have dubbed the siren cry.

She had fallen off the bed.

I kid you not.  I can't make this stuff up!  Luckily, she was totally fine and even resumed playing on the bed immediately after some much-needed snuggle time with Momma.  She proceeded to dismantle the carefully sorted toy bins one by one, bringing objects of interest up to her new perch for inspection (well away from the edge of the bed...won't do that again!).

Around 5:00, she began to cry again.  This time, she was lying in bed with her trusty pal, Dirt Pink, screaming at the ceiling.  Five hours of school and a whole new room can wear a gal out, don'tchaknow.  So, at five o'clock in the evening, I sang our ni-night song and tucked her in, carefully backing out through the minefield of toys and shutting off the light.

And then I left for school.  It was a long day, but I'm sure we'll all get used to it eventually...just about the time it'll all be changing again, probably!

4 comments:

  1. Awww! A big girl bed! She is growing up so fast. Maybe we should get Noah a big boy bed? Right now his big boy bed is actually mama and daddy's bed! :)

    Ohhh, the long school days made for some restful nights around here. I don't think Noah slept through the night or went to bed before midnight until he started school in January. (His school days ran from 9 to 2:30. Boy do I kind of miss that!)

    She'll adjust to the new schedule (and so will mama)!

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  2. Wow, big girl bed!?! How much higher off of the ground is it than her toddler bed? Kait's bed is that expanding kind that is as wide as a twin but has three lengths to go from about as long as a toddler to the final length of a twin bed. It's pretty awesome but the problem with it is that it's fairly low to the ground so you can't store much underneath it. Which, in hindsight, might be a good thing. I used to "clean" my room by just shoving everything under the bed. Maybe that's why Mom got us beds that had no underneath to them ;)

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  3. Yep, the big girl bed. She loves it so far, by the way...lots more room to play on it. ;)

    It's about the same height as the queen bed. It was my bed at my folks' house before I bought this place, and I brought it with me when we started decorating the nursery. If you remember that far back, it's the same twin bed.

    Shoving stuff underneath will definitely be a concern, since The Princess loves to hide things like that anyway. So far, though, it hasn't been a problem...I think that's largely due to the fact that she doesn't seem to have any idea that it's even possible. ;)

    Eventually, she'll probably end up with a custom-built bed frame with integrated storage, but that's a long way off. One thing at a time!

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  4. Ah yes, I do remember the twin bed being in there. Seems like forever ago.

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