My BIG Girl...

I cannot get over what a BIG GIRL my Tink is becoming.

I feel a bit guilty that I do not offer her more praise around her or fawn over every milestone quite as much as I did with Sassy. Write it off to second-child-syndrome, but here's one guilty Mama, nonetheless...

First off, Tink's had the potty training business licked for weeks and weeks now. Just days after her 2.5 "birthday", she went from diapers to full-on day trained in no time flat. I remember with Sassy, it was a loooooong time before I felt comfortable taking her places without a pull-up on. Tink, not so much. Once she had it, she had it.

Then, it was on to the next big milestone... a big girl bed!

We decided that when my parents moved, they would take the two toddler beds we had to their apartment to fill their spare bedroom, and when it was time, Tink would move straight into the This End Up twin bed we had from when I was a child that was part of my bunk bed set. The coolest part... since it was originally intended to be a bunk, it has two removable wooden rails that prevent the whole falling-out-of-bed scenario.

After much deliberation, we decided to pseudo-set-up Tink's big girl room for now, and wait to do a major room transformation like we did with Sassy's room until she is about four. So, for now, the paint and wall paper border and window treatments and such will stay the same. We have bigger and better things to save for on the horizon!

Anyway, we did the switcharoo the evening the girls stayed at my parents house over spring break. So far, it's been a huge success! Tink loves her big girl bed, and she is very proud of her "new room". We switched out her wardrobe and Sassy's dresser so that Tink would have the matching dresser to her bed, and we added a small bookcase to her room. Oh, and I brought up the doll cradle from the basement for her babies.

This is Tink checking out her new room for the first time:



She was pretty psyched that her babies had a place, too!



She definitely took her time taking it all in!



She was eager to climb in (with help) and try it on for size!



The greatest part of all is that, from the very beginning, I told her that she needed help getting in and out and that she might fall and get hurt, so we're still basically reaping the parental advantages of having a crib- enclosure!



She whimpered a bit that first rest, and I think she ended up in bed with us that first night or two, but since then, things have been going swell! Hooray for big girls!

I love the fact that this new big girl bed just swallows her up in all her tiny splendor...



I cannot get over how fast she is growing up! Man alive, it feels like yesterday that we were bringing her home from the hospital and laying her in her crib for the first time...

She is making strides, that's for certain.

Now, only if we could get her to ditch those fingers...