This bed has now been slept in by my baby girl.  It happened so fast, but I don't think she thought so.  We were planning to babysit for some close friends who were going on a date for their anniversary.  Because they weren't sure how late they would be gone, we decided to set up enough beds for all three kids to fall asleep here before their parents got back to pick them up.

Since we have been planning to transition Clara into a 'big girl' bed at some point anyway, we thought we might as well move the toddler bed in now and let her get used to the idea. 

This is what her room used to look like.

We realized we might have a problem when we moved the bed in, and she excitedly ran into the room and lunged herself onto her new bed.  I wasn't sure she's willingly give it up - even for that night - for her friends.  Luckily for her our friends returned before the kids were in bed, and she was free to sleep in her new bed.

We offered her a choice of beds and I don't think she even glanced at her crib. I thought we'd take some time for her to get used to the crib after we moved it into her room, but she didn't need that. My daughter was more ready than I was for her to be a 'big girl'.

She fell asleep last night after her usual amount of jabbering to herself, which included a few times of getting out of bed and running around the room, but that was expected.  After she fell asleep she didn't wake up, and she didn't roll off the bed. 

Now we have completed one step of getting ready for baby, and there are now beds for two little girls in my daughters' bedroom.  I can't believe how fast time flies!

Celia is my first daughter - my first child - so all of her 'firsts' are incredible and precious.  (I apologize in advance to all of my subsequent children, because this pregnancy has already been much less interesting that her's was, and I presume I'll take some of your growth for granted also - I'm sorry).

I think the milestone that excited me the most was the day she began walking.  And then, the day I realized she was walking more than she was crawling.  This was when I realized that she was really no longer a 'baby', but was now a toddler, and becoming a child.  My BABY was growing up!

Sigh.

My daughter may be 'behind' the world in learning to walk (nearly 16 months), but her language skills are heading through the roof! Maybe she's not that special, but it amazes me how this little girl who didn't walk or talk (not even a word) a month ago, is suddenly able to have entire conversations with me...

She started out with (probably typical) 'Dadda', and 'No!', and although she said 'Mumma' occasionally, it wasn't consistent enough for me to think she knew what she was saying... about last week she started pointing to me and saying 'Mumma', and the other night she started crying and when Brian walked into her room, she said 'Mumma!' as if she wanted me (I'm definitely more likely to pick her up and cuddle her...).

Now all of a sudden this last week, I've heard her say the words 'more', 'ball', 'Grandma', 'Grandpa', 'Table', 'Diaper', 'Cat' (which is weird, because we've always referred to the cat as 'Kitty'), 'baby', 'down', 'up'... ok, that's all I can remember at the moment, but I'm impressed!

Last night we even heard her talking in her sleep! Nothing intelligible, but it was cute anyway.