Rookie Dad: Cribs!

I've only seen The Youngling truly scared one time before last night. And last night wasn't violently raining and thundering without electricity.

No, last night was the first night that The Youngling would spending in her newly converted toddler bed. Gone was the one side of her crib and in its place were the mildly tacky metal half-railing things that, in theory, should keep her from rolling out of her newish bed and landing on the floor at 3:30 AM.
I made sure to get her extra tired before we took her up to bed. That way she would be less prone to tossing and turning and less likely to end up on the floor with a sudden thud. After her teeth were brushed it was off to bed.

At least that's how it was supposed to go. Instead of eagerly crawling up in to her bed, she stood in the corner and looked truly worried. "Where'd part go, Daddy?", she said in a concerned tone. Repeating it and crying as we both tried to talk her in to trying out her newish bed. She had even watched as I disassembled part of the crib and installed the mini-rails to prevent middle-of-the-night tumbles.

So I had to show her where the part went that I had removed. We padded the floor with some pillows and a quilt and even made a tumble-stopping log out of another quilt to put her at ease. Amazingly, not long after 9 PM, The Youngling was actually in her newish bed and stayed there the entire night -- even after her quilt log ended up on the floor.

This is one of the biggest steps yet, next week it's time to get her accustomed to driving.