Yesterday we finally stopped to see if they had the big-girl bed we wanted from the store. (Mind you we've been meaning to do this now for several months...so this is amazing progress for us) And AMAZINGLY, they did have it. So we brought it home and I put it together with a little "help" from Laurel. As soon as the mattress went on it she jumped and played and pretended to sleep. So we went ahead and moved it into her room and gave her the choice as to which bed she wanted to sleep in. She chose the big girl bed, so we moved over the puppies, the blankets and the aquarium music maker. (All essential parts of Laurel's bed time ritual) We read our books like normal, but when it was time to actually go to sleep she started crying and begged me to read more, which of course I did. (Sucker, I know) Then after I read those she started crying and climbed out of bed. What do you do then? So we struck a deal and I lay on the floor next to her until she fell asleep and then quietly snuck out. Neither Jon or I slept the rest of the night. We listened to every creak of the new bed, every shuffle of the new mattress. She did fine and slept the whole night through. Jon and I on the other hand are very tired. It doesn't seem like Laurel's transition to the big-girl bed will take long, hopefully ours won't either!