Big Girl Bed (Part 2)

Abigail got her real big-girl bed yesterday. Here she is helping Aaron with setup, and enjoying all of the extra space. We still need to get a dust ruffle to make it a little more "pretty", but she has fun flowery sheets.

Big Girl Bed

I am so proud of Abigail! She has been sleeping in her "big-girl bed" for three nights, and she is doing soooo awesome. (It's still actually her crib, but with one of the sides taken off. We're going to buy a twin bed soon and move her into that.)

We knew we needed transition Abigail out of her crib soon because the baby** will need the crib. We wanted the transition to be well established long before baby's arrival, so Abigail didn't feel like she got "kicked out". I had been dreading the day that Abigail was no longer contained by her crib. I thought it was going to be a total nightmare and battle of the wills to keep her in bed. When she learned how to climb out of her crib a week or two ago, we decided that we needed to make the move as soon as possible.

Three days ago we switched the crib into toddler-bed mode. Not one time has Abigail gotten out of bed when she's supposed to be sleeping. Naptime and nighttime have both gone smoothly. Now I'm excited to get the real big-girl bed for her, and have her help me pick out some fun new bedding. Yay!

**Speaking of baby...we have an appointment for an ultrasound on Wednesday. We have decided that we will find out the gender if we can. So, we have have an announcement on Wednesday!

A-B-I-G-A-I-L, coloring

Abigail is learning how to spell her name. And she loves to color.

"Happy Birthday Nana" - a peek into Abigail's communication style

The Background
Abigail primarily communicates in one-word "phrases". (Although I don't think a single word can really be considered a phrase, per se.) She often communicates her thoughts by using multiple words, but they are not usually related in any grammatical way. (i.e. she will say "Sing, (pause) Car" to tell me that she wants to go in the car to go sing at IHOP. When she asks for things, she will say either "please" or the name of the item...but never "juice, please" in one phrase. Every now and then she will put two words together to make a logical "sentence", but it seems like it's usually not very intentional.

We went to a birthday party for our dear friend Matt recently, and I tried to teach her to say "Happy Birthday". At that time, she needed me to prompt each word separately.

The Statement
A couple days ago when Abigail was eating dinner, she started spontaneously saying "Happy Birthday Nana". She said this completely unprompted, and repeated it at least a couple times. Lo and behold, Nana's birthday was just a day or two before that, but I don't remember telling that to Abigail. I ran to grab the camera to try to get a good clip of her saying the whole phrase.

The Conversation
This is what followed:


The Transcript (with interpretation)
I started the video just as Abigail was finishing saying "Nana"

MOM: quietly prompting: Say Happy Birthday Nana

ABIGAIL: untranslatable singing with dancing.
Baow! (Belle, Nana and Grandpa's dog)
Baow!

MOM: Abigail, Can you say Happy Birthday Nana?

ABIGAIL: Looking around sadly because she can't see her: NANA! Nana, Nana!
(realizing that Nana is definitely not here) Bye-bye!
Uh, dah, dah, dah. Wook (work. Because if someone is not here, they must be "at work" - that's where Daddy goes when he's gone.)
De, dah. Bampa. (Grandpa. Because we've already named Nana and Belle.)

MOM: Abigail, can you say Happy Birthday?

ABIGAIL: All smiles: Hah-Pee Hur-day!

MOM: whispering a prompt: Nana

ABIGAIL: whispers back: Nana
louder Doh. No.

MOM: Can you say Happy Birthday Nana?

ABIGAIL: singing: Do hah-pee da-ay. No-hah.
talking: Pway! pway! (Pray! pray!)(because at Matt's birthday party we all prayed for him, so to Abigail, birthdays are apparently inextricably linked to praying.)
Folding her hands, bowing her head, praying: Tooh. Dee-dut (which might mean "Jesus", but it's not always clear). Boh, bun, dee.
Spying a tasty-looking apple on her plate: Appo (apple). Nee, dow.

THE END