Time for Gratitude: Big Girl Beds and Grandmas

Ok, so this past week our baby girl got a real big girl bed. It’s not one of those “in-between” toddler beds, though she did have one of those. It isn’t even a twin size bed, suitable for one and only one person. It is an actual full size bed. As I had thought about her transitioning from her toddler bed, I just always assumed we would get her a twin bed and she would be happy with it, and eventually, like maybe in high school or something, we would get her a big full or queen bed. Most nights she comes up and sleeps with us for about half the night, anyway.

Well, my grandma and grandpa had a different idea. My grandma passed away on September 10, 2000 in a car accident, and my grandpa just passed on Good Friday this past spring. So, this summer my mom and her siblings had the task of going through their house and getting rid of everything and taking what they wanted, what their families might want, etc. I had told my mom that if nobody else wanted the beds, I would take one and we could store it until Vienna was ready to transition. I also told her that I definitely wanted a dresser for Vienna if nobody else wanted one, as we are using plastic drawers for her clothes right now. Well, my mom totally rocks, and she got some beds as wells as several dressers.

When my brothers, sister, and I went through everything that my mom had gotten from my grandparent’s home, we basically just split everything up…if mom didn’t want it, us kids got to claim it if we wanted. If more than one person wanted something we rolled dice for it. It was a really good and fair system and went quite quickly. Among many other things, a beautiful antique dresser and full size bed were now ours. At the end of everything that day, I asked my folks if they could store the bed on their farm or in their storage since we don’t really have a place for it until Vienna is ready for it. My mom looked at me with a grin and said “I’ll bet she’s ready for it now”. Words I hadn’t even considered. I mean, she’s my baby! How in the world could she be ready for a big full size bed?

Well, I decided “what the heck?” and asked her. I pointed to the big bed (well, actually I pointed to the mattress and box spring that were leaning against a tree outside at the time), and asked her if she would like to start sleeping in it. She got giddy (like a 3 ½ year old gets giddy at the simplest of things). She began dancing around on the deck and said, “you mean I get to start sleeping in the bed with flowers on it?!” (it has big, gaudy orange and brown flowers on it). She then began to tell us all kinds of things that she was going to do with the bed. She’s quite the story teller J.

So, last week my folks hauled the dresser and bed here to our home in Mitchell from Platte where they live. Randall and Dad got the bed all set up, got the dresser situated in her room, and Vienna was on cloud nine. I had some sheets ready, so Mom and I made the bed and both Vienna and Porter were jumping on it, squealing with delight, and giggling like only a 3 ½ and 1 ½ year old can. It was priceless.

One thing I definitely didn’t expect, though, was my emotion about it. I know which room this bed came from, and I remember oh-so-clearly while growing up, playing on, sleeping on, and staying up to all hours of the night with my cousins talking on this bed. It has “1973” written on it (remember the gaudy flowers?)…my grandma wrote down and kept everything, so it doesn’t surprise me that she wanted to keep track of when they got it. In fact, my mom probably slept on it in high school, since it was in what was once her room and she graduated in 1975. How cool is that?

My grandma meant SO much to me. She was the most wonderful woman in the world (next to my own mom, of course – ha!). I’ll write more about her and the gifts she gave me in another post. For now, though, I’m looking forward to curling up to my little punkin tonight, reading her some books, praying with her, and giving her all kinds of love on the bed that my grandma and her grandma are tied so closely to.