Yesterday was a big day for the smallest girl in our household: Sadie Rose, the youngest of two, finally had her crib taken down! Now this may not seem a big deal but to us this was big news indeed. First, our little girl is growing up; she's in a real bed now, just like her big sister. Second, our little girl will forever more be able to get into of bed without assistance; goodbye back pain. Third, our little girl now has one less thing with which to gain a finer vertical vantage point (read one less source of head injury). These are all solid reasons why losing the bars were a good thing but the best reason, I've discovered, is that now the monsters that had been causing her nightmares (and us, severe sleep deprivation) and which were just barely (read not always) contained by my wife's homemade "No Monster Spray" would now be kept at bay - perhaps permanently.  This last discover was apprehended in two ways. The first was from Sadie herself via her initial reaction to seeing crib-to-baby-bed conversion kit: "Oh thank you, Daddy. Now the monsters can't get me anymore and I don't have to be scared anymore because now I have a big-girl bed!". The second was that she slept last night without incident; she actually had to be woken up by us at 7:30 this morning!  Good news but not for long... Now that she can get out of her bed, she soon will get out of her bed. Back when she had bars, it was, wailing notwithstanding, we - and not she - who decided when she could leave; now it's all on her. (And, yes, somehow it never dawned on Sadie, a master climber, to climb out of her crib.)  This means that she can leave her room and explore the apartment at will (almost always a bad thing) and, if inclined, enter our bedroom thus interrupting our sleep, the most important thing that happens in our bedroom these days. The other downside is that now that she has a bed, she's on the same playing field as her big sister who has a real bed - not a converted crib. After the initial elation from seeing the box died down, she followed up with a frown complaining that that big-girl bed was actually still a baby bad - not a 'perfect bed' like Rory's because "Rory's bed is perfect and mine is not perfect and I'm not a baby because I'm a big girl [enter sudden and copious amounts of tears, snot and slobber]!" So despite the first solid night of sleep we've all enjoyed for well over a fortnight, the battle for sleep will now be waged on a wider front with ever graver consequences. My wife and I will try to get as much sleep as we can. We'll need it for soon, the monsters are coming into our room. Hopefully my wife has another bottle of that spray...