Bedtime woes!

Some people would say I'm lucky. I just say I give birth to children who are a little chicken about trying scary things. It's not to say that they don't develop brazen, daring behavior as they grow older (like Spencer who's recently taken to scaling 25 foot trees-ack!), but innately they've all started off on the cautious side of life.

To illustrate this fact I will point out that not a single one of my kids has EVER attempted to get out of their crib or playpen by themselves, so we would always just leave them to sleep in their cribs until the next child would come along and needed it next. I was so shocked when my little nieces and nephew started crawling out of their's at 16-18 months or so...I never even knew it was possible. Now I realize that my kids are more the anomaly than the other way around.

But we have a problem--okay it's not really a problem, just a hindrance to our tradition...Ellie doesn't have anyone to take her place in the crib. So we've done what any other lazy parents would do; we've just kept her in the crib.

Well she's almost 3-1/2, and with the arrival of summertime's more laid-back schedule we decided that it would be the perfect time to make the move to a bed. She was SO excited about this new development and she was old enough that I was confident that it would be a smooth transition.
But I was wrong!

We used to put her to bed about 45 minutes before the rest of the kids, because she needed just a little more sleep. But it's proven to be way too exciting for her sleeping with the big kids and she just lies in bed (still she never gets out of bed) late into the night chatting away to anyone who might listen. Often I'll go to check on them and find Emma and Adam sound asleep, while Ellie is still cheerfully chatting away!

So my ever-smiling, giggling little girl is a little less smiley and giggly as she goes through life with 1-2 hours of sleep fewer per night than before. I was optimistic that this adjustment would come quickly, but after almost 4 weeks I'm growing worried that it may not be until school starts again.

In the meantime, I have to admit that although I miss her constant cheerfulness...her pout is still pretty darn cute!