Leah is in a big girl bed!

We have been gearing up for this momentous occasion for weeks. As per my last post, almost 4 weeks ago, I showed Leah the bed and bedding online before I bought it. She was very excited and for several days afterward she asked to see more pictures of it - "More becky bed pictures?" Since then we have been talking about the bed as her 2nd birthday present. Last week we started putting her baby doll down at naptime in the big girl bed. Leah holds the doll - aka "Baby" - with the doll's head on her shoulder, much like we hold Leah when putting her to bed, and sings either Twinkle Twinkle or Rock a Bye Baby - all this with no prompting. Obviously in Leah's world this is how bedtime works. Once she has put Baby down to sleep in the big girl bed, we put Leah down to sleep in the crib - also with a round of Twinkle Twinkle, but this one sung by Shafi or me.

I started asking Leah a few days ago if she wants to start sleeping in the big girl bed on Friday. She said yes. Every day we talked about, "Today is Tuesday and tomorrow is Wednesday and then Thursday and then it'll be Friday. Friday night you get to start sleeping in the big girl bed." And so on. Today I started asking her if she's ready - about half a dozen times I asked her if she wants to sleep in the big girl bed tonight. She always gave me an enthusiastic yes.

Shafi and I had decided that it would be a bit much to actually start it on her birthday, since her birthday party is from 4:30 to 6 p.m. and my parents will be visiting - could be an awful lot of commotion keeping her from transitioning smoothly. And we thought it would be best to start it on a Friday so that we have the weekend to adjust - and fit in naps if we have rough nights.

So tonight after getting her washed up for bed, while Shafi put her into her pajamas, I sang Rock a Bye Baby to Baby Boy (her boy baby doll - a gift from GG to help Leah practice helping with her little brother - and no this is not an anatomically correct doll - he's just wearing blue). I put Baby Boy down in the crib and put Leah's crib blanket on him. Then Leah put her head down on Shafi's shoulder and gave me a goodnight kiss. He sang Rock a Bye Baby and Twinkle Twinkle and put her down in the bed. We had her puppy and dolly ready and waiting for her - the two items she has been sleeping with in the crib. When he finished singing Leah actually said, "In the bed" - and when he put her down she put her head on the pillow and let him pull the sheet and comforter up around her.

That was at about 7:20 p.m. It's now 8:30 p.m. and we haven't heard a peep. So we're crossing our fingers that the sound of silence continues!

Leah loves babies - hopefully that will continue when we have one in the apartment. Here are some recent pics of Leah showing her love.

Playing with Asher's little brother Lio:
Holding Tyler's little brother Ethan:
Holding Malia's little sister Kaiemi:
And here's Leah testing out the new bed a few days ago:
Walking around to get the full picture:
And pretending to nap - after the rails went up: