Crazy kisses!

When Hailey was still sleeping in her crib, her going to sleep ritual included many crazy, made-up kinds of kisses. There was the running kiss, the banana kiss, the broccoli kiss, the jail kiss (as seen in the photo) and numerous other kisses that Evan and I would make up on the fly while we were trying to get out of her room. While I was putting her down for her nap today, I got a little nostalgic for all of the crazy crib kisses. I know that she would call for kiss after kiss just to stall going to sleep, but it is a warm, fuzzy memory anyway.

Her crib has been replaced with a new big girl bed and she has taken to it like a champ. The first two days were rough and had me second guessing our decision to move her, but the third day was the charm. I don't know what I was expecting her to do. The night that we took down the crib and set up the bed, she had basically a few hours at most to get accustomed to her new digs before we put her to bed and expected her to be completely at ease. I mean, who can blame her for getting up and out over and over again? The next day as she napped, she was watching out the window while her Daddy took off in his car running errands. Of course she would feel scared that we had abandoned her in this unfamiliar new territory. That night as she fussed and cried and we kept putting her back in her room, I remember asking Spencer in frustration why she wouldn't just go to sleep? He told me "Well, since it is a brand new bed to her, she is just a little scared. She just has to get used to it." Sage advice my son. From that night on, she hasn't had a problem.

So here it is. The new big girl room. I am not ready to commit to a theme room yet because I don't know what she is going to be really "into" or want to spend the next ten or so years of her life looking at. I just found a primary colored "girlish" comforter to match with the colors already in the room. I haven't taken down the crib quilt hanging on the wall yet because I don't know what to put there. Her bed is Trent's old twin bed from his parents house. When she is older, we will have to purchase a loft type of bed to go in her room with space underneath for a desk or dresser. Her room is so small and her closet is a joke, a bed off the floor will be the only option for a tweener girl. We were looking at Walmart and Target for a cheap bed that she could use for the time being. We were not having much luck and then we remembered Trent's bed sitting unused at his Dad's house. I would prefer it to be white, but wood and free is a combo that you can't beat.

I like being able to climb into her bed with her and snuggle and read books. There are lots of giggles and giant hugs as she squeezes up next to me to save herself from falling down the "crack". When our reading time is over (her two book limit tends to become three or four as she looks at me with those blue eyes and pleads "Just one more?") she hugs me for dear life and tells me to try to leave. When I can't get out of her grasp she tells me it is because she is the mean witch and she will lock me in a tower all the while smiling and giggling like no mean witch ever would. If she is not a witch, she is a "big, max, wolf." Don't even ask, because I have no idea why she replaced "max" for "bad", but I don't ever want her to stop saying it because it is just way too cute.

So the crazy kisses have been replaced by ferocious hugs and pleadings for "just one more kiss" as I am walking out the door. How can I look at her laying there with her little lips puckered up and not oblige? Today as I was leaving her to nap she called out for a "broccoli" kiss. So maybe the crazy kisses are not gone forever. Yea, it makes me want to jump for joy too!