Tonight was the big night.  We finally took the plunge and converted Alethea’s crib into a toddler bed.  We also bolted her dresser to the wall and removed her chair and the toy storage cubes to try to prevent her from doing any climbing.

I did my best to prepare her for the change by talking about it all day.  She at one point asked me if she would have Dee in her big girl bed and I assured her that he would be in the bed along with her blankie, nuks and other stuffed animals.

I also bought her a new pretty purple sheet with flowers and butterflies on it and she was very excited to put that on the mattress tonight before bed.

After the bed conversion was complete, Alethea double checked to make sure it still worked for a trampoline…

and then spent several minutes putting all of her comfort items back in the bed…

The end result?  Well, it’s 10:21 and she just finally got quiet.  She seemed to be fine as long as she wasn’t in the bed, but every time she climbed in, she’d start crying.  Poor girl.  I really thought she’d be excited about having the freedom to roam around, but it only seems to be making her feel insecure.

We’ll see how the rest of the night goes.  I have a feeling I may be visiting her room several times.  Mainly though, I just hope she doesn’t fall out.

MORNING UPDATE: Alethea did not cry at all last night, although I did hear her playing at around 3:00am.  When I woke up in the morning, she was standing at the gate in the doorway waiting for someone to let her out of her room, but the room itself was very neat.  She even put her books back on the shelf in a nice stack!