Maddy and the Big Girl Bed

I don't know if anyone was aware or not, but for the last few weeks, my all-too-grown-up daughter has been sleeping in her brand new BIG GIRL BED! That's right...we have a new head pillow and a new Dora and Boots pillow and the large blue Sleepy Time Care Bear sleeps with her so the "monters" don't get her.

For the time being, after our usual Wiggles or Spongebob adventure and after I, in stealing a tradition from my sister and her kids, "charge" the stars in her room, I take her in and lay her down, put her little sheet and blanket on her, and sit down by her side and sing her some songs until she's asleep. At first, she names the songs she wants to hear...Twinkle Twinkle, Spider (as in "Itsy Bitsy"), ABCs...but when she gets sleepier, she just keeps saying "more, Daddy" and then she's gone.

We're (me and myself) currently looking for some kind of little lamp so I can lay with her and start reading some real bedtime stories (which I can't tell you all how excited I am). As my sister will probable only know, in the same tradition as the Gloops, Gurgi, and The Hobbit, I hope I can instill the same kind of magical wonder for those books that my parents instilled in my sister and I, all the while hearing "one more chapter" and then "one more page" and then, finally, defeat.

She's been such a good girl and stays in her bed all night. Even after she wakes up and starts calling for me (and the Blitz), we find her sitting up in the middle of her sheet and blanket, hair spiking every which way, and her little smile looking forward to the new day with "her guys" (as she calls them) at school.