The Crib

She's getting close to moving up to a toddler bed, it's true...  But for now, we're still using the crib, and I'm grateful for it. 

I'm grateful because it keeps her safely in bed while she still tosses and turns from top to bottom every night. 

And I'm grateful because I can still use it as her time-out spot (yes, we do time out -- and it works!), since she can't get out of it without us removing the side.

And I'm grateful because she can't get out of it, so when I lay her in the crib and cover her up at night, she knows it's bed-time and goes to sleep. 

And I'm grateful because, now, it's full of memories for me.  It is where I first laid my baby girl the first night we moved her into her own room at 3 1/2 months when she'd learned how to sleep through the night and put herself to sleep. 

It's the place I have picked her up from many a middle-of-the night during her growth spurts and need for midnight feedings. 

It's the place I go in and find her laughing and smiling after a nap, or first thing in the morning. 

I think often of how it isn't so long ago that she couldn't roll around and move in her crib.  Or how it isn't so long ago that she started being able to move -- and would shove herself up into the head of the crib and get stuck, so she'd cry to be moved down (we learned to go in and move her down when we were going to bed each night, just to get a few extra hours of sleep ;)). 

It is crazy to think that, one day, we will part ways with this crib.  We will be done having babies.  The concept seems so foreign to me right now.  I guess I form sentimental attachments to objects...  And, I'm realizing as I write this, that I'm more attached to the crib than I realized! 

What are you grateful for today?