Will and Hallie's page: Big Girl Bed

Our recent move presented an opportune time to move Hallie from her crib to a big girl bed. Will moved from his crib to his big boy bed when he was exactly – within a week – the same age as Hallie is now, and for Will, the transition was unbelievably smooth. We figured the transition would be equally smooth for Hallie, you know, because we’re idiots and have obviously learned nothing throughout the last 27 months about how our two children are COMPLETELY different from one another.

Will, circa January 2009, just before his first night in a big boy bed.

Hallie, circa last week, just before her first nap in a big girl bed.

Pretending to sleep.

Carefully planning her escape as I exited the room.

Hallie’s first go at the big girl bed was during naptime. After she’d been in her room for about 15 minutes I checked on her for the first time. I found her completely naked (she’d taken off all of her clothes AND her diaper), except for her dressiest pair of shoes and all of her jewelry. I helped her out of her dress shoes and jewelry, put her diaper back on, and helped her climb back into bed. 15 minutes later I checked on her a second time. She was sitting in the dark in the corner of her closest, brushing her doll’s hair. Scattered throughout the room were ALL of the diapers that had been in the diaper genie…and ALL OF THE CONTENTS of the diapers that had been in the diaper genie. That’s right, folks – she opened all of the diapers and dumped what had been in them on the carpet. I cleaned up the mess, discussed with her what should and should not happen during naptime, and helped her climb back into bed again.

Hallie never did nap that afternoon, and when Tom went to get her up at the end of naptime, he found her standing in the middle of her room, completely naked once again. She informed him, “I have some-ting (something) in my hay-ya (hair)”, which prompted Tom to investigate and led to him discovering that she’d taken the protective paper off the back of eight Command Hook wall mounts and gotten them stuck in her hair.

After that first nap we had about a week of good nights and good naps. And then she learned how to open doors. (Cue the Jurassic Park background music and the parallel line from that movie about velociraptors.) She’s only come out of her room once – when Tom found her in the hallway she smiled guiltily and cheerfully said “ta-da-da!” – but she regularly stands inside her room and opens and shuts the door over and over and over again.

A few nights ago, when I checked on Hallie before going to bed myself, I found this. (She's literally hanging off the side of the bed - her feet are not touching the ground.)