Toddler Bed Transition

Since the news came of a second kiddo joining our family, I've been thinking about all the changes we need to make. In my mind the scariest change of all was going to be transitioning Carly into a toddler bed!  Carly has been sleeping through the night (I'm talking a 12 hour night here) since she was three months old. She RARELY cried or fought us at all when we put her down for a nap or bedtime in her crib. I didn't want to ruin a good thing!! But baby brother needs a crib, and I didn't want to postpone the bed transition until after he is born. She will be overwhelmed with enough change when that happens.

SO. I googled toddler beds. They are expensive!! Or they are cheap plastic with an obnoxious cartoon character on them - not my thing. Then I remembered the toddler bed that all my siblings and I used was built by my Great Grandpa Strasser - I loved that bed! How hard could it be to build a bed? Not to mention it would save us quite a bit of moola. And Matt was always talking about how he would like an opportunity to build something - so build a toddler bed we would!

We went to Home Depot, got all the supplies, and Matt worked his magic. The hardest part was cutting all the wood to the right size because we only had a hand saw. That took forever. Once the wood was cut, Matt assembled it all rather quickly.

Ta-duh!! I'm so proud of him. It's crazy sturdy and will hopefully be something that can be passed down in our family.  Matt finished it right before school started, so I took it upon myself to paint it. I really didn't know what I was getting myself into. You have no idea how many surfaces this thing has!! Besides that - my hips like to stop functioning when I'm pregnant whether I'm staying active or not. Crouching down to paint that bed all day was painful to say the least. But look how pretty it turned out!! Needless to say, I will leave all future paintings of this toddler bed to my posterity.

As for the Carly transition, she has spoiled us once again with her love of sleep. She practiced napping in her "big girl bed" for two days, and by the third day she was sleeping through the night!  She loves the new freedom. Now we'll just have to see what she thinks about having a roommate!