New Digs

Jillian spent her first night in her new "big girl" room last night. We are so happy to have it done (short only curtains and some decor), and she is so proud of it. Matt got the furniture put together on Friday, and that was quite a feat. We bought it at IKEA, and if you've ever purchased any furniture from them you know that absolutely nothing is assembled. I should back up and report that we had a good deal of trouble getting this furniture purchased in the first place. About a month ago, we all headed up to Minneapolis on the only Saturday Matt had off in several weeks. We went to IKEA to look at (and hopefully purchase) bedroom furniture before taking Jillian to the Mall of America. We got to IKEA before the doors opened, and quickly found what we were looking for. We found all items in stock in the warehouse, loaded up, paid, and headed to the car. We were able to get all the boxes in the car--except the one containing the head and foot boards of her bed. In order to make it fit, we would need to remove the car seat and fold the entire second row forward--this was obviously NOT an option since Jilly was in tow, so I returned that box and we came home with everything but the bed. A couple weeks later, my dad offered to take me up while they were visiting (Matt out of town) so that we could get the bed in his car, but the bed was out of stock. Ugh! It was luckily restocked a couple of weeks ago, and Matt drove up and back one evening after work to repurchase the bed for his little "big girl". We picked up a mattress the next night while out on our date night, and we were finally in business! We are very happy with the quality of the furniture and think it looks great in her room. Matt took Jillian out for the morning (park, errands, etc) while I moved her clothes over to the new room and made the bed. She was thrilled when she saw the finished room upon returning and made us feel so good when she exclaimed, "I'm just so happy guys!" as she ran about her new digs.



We decided that this occasion was cause for celebration, so we told Jillian that we were going to have a pizza and movie party in the basement that night. We had heard Tangled was a great movie, and thought Jillian would love to learn the story of Rapunzel since she has now discovered Disney princesses thanks to the pictures of them on her underwear. We laid out beach towels, turned the lights out, and enjoyed our pizza as we watched this fantastic movie. Jillian was mesmerized by the animation and music, and snuggled with her daddy as she watched the entire movie.


After the movie and bath, it was time to get snuggled in her new big girl bed. She calls this her "birdie bed" since the bedding has some birds on it. When it came time to climb in, she became very upset with me when I took the decorative sham pillow (with the beloved birds on it) off the bed and presented her with the plain sheet-covered pillow. She had never slept with a pillow before this night, so of course wasn't quite versed with the proper pillow "etiquette". Needless to say, the birdie pillow is where she lays her head :) Here she is all tucked in after books, ready to give this big bed a shot.

Before I left the room, she looked at me with sincere eyes and said, "Mommy, I want long hair like Punzel". It was the first time she's ever commented to me about her lack of hair and it broke my heart for a split second. I told her she has beautiful hair, and that someday it will grow long. Oh the dreams of a little girl....
Jillian fell asleep quickly and when we checked on her before we went to bed, this was what we found

A peacefully sleeping big girl. No longer a baby. I have known this for a long time, of course, but it was so striking to me at this moment. Matt reminded how big we thought her crib looked to us nearly 2 1/2 years ago when we placed her in it for the first time. This was no different, and brought tears to my eyes in a similar way. I am so proud of our big girl. She had a great first night in the bed, only waking once at 12:30 (I think because she rolled over too hard into the wall) for a brief moment. After a quick drink of water and some reassurance, she was back to dream land. Here's hoping that it continues to go well!