the simple things

It’s big girl room time.  Now, those words can be read quickly, with barely a passing glance.  They can be read sing-song, like traipsing through a field of daisies.  Or they can be read accompanied by the heavy-handed Darth Vader theme music.

I hear the latter.

The nursery has been gutted down to the sheets and curtains, and new life has sprung up in the room formerly referred to as “the guest room.”  Even the piggy bank has a new home.  My heart, however, is still rocking in the twilit dusk of  the room that held my baby girl for the first 29 months of her life.

Funny how the simple things get you, right?

“I want to sleep in my big girl room,” she’s old enough to proclaim, and so I try to dodge around the ghost of the guest bed that’s been moved out.  I try to avoid stepping on the ghosts of toys that used to litter the nursery floor.  I try not to look at the spot on the crib sheets that used to be warm from a baby body.

I wish it weren’t big girl bed time.

But I’ve got a big girl now, whether I’m ready or not.  So in trying to make the best of an inevitable situation, I’m willing myself to look forward.

Forward to the hours spent reading in the big girl reading tent.

Forward to the trampoline thrill of a big girl bed.

And if my eyes happen to snag on that photo above the dresser of a Little, little, little Friend, I try to quickly fast forward to the big girl of now.  A big girl who, from time to time, still requests to play in her crib.

A big girl who’s still small enough to leave room in bed for me.  As I snuggle next to her on the big girl mattress, a small arm snakes across my back.  “I happy now.  Guess why?” she quizzes me.  “I happy ’cause I give my mommy a hug.”

And with that first of many simple bedtime hugs, I’m on board with the whole big girl room thing.

Funny how the simple things get you, right?

For those of you following along and keeping me honest on checking off items on my summer bucket list, consider the reading tent a done deal.  For a few bucks of scrap lumber and less than an hour of your time, you can make this ridiculously simple and immensely entertaining tent.  It’s our favorite part of the big girl room so far.

This post shared with Mama’s Losin’ It.