A big girl bed of her own

Elise's birthday is coming up in a month and her big present this year will likely be a "big girl bed". She has been in a toddler bed for the last year and a half and has decided she wants out. We are happy about this decision and hope it helps to keep her in her room at night. She had become very skilled at sneaking into our bed without our knowledge-except now I'm awake about half the night so I can catch her in the act. Mike doesn't mind at all but I need my space.

This brings up a funny story from my childhood..not my first, but my most memorable big girl bed. There are several things about this story that are now both amusing and shocking.

When I was eight years old I went with my dad to run some errands. I had a few dollars I collected somehow-in reality that means I probably just said, "dad can I have a few dollars?" My dad gave me the liberty to choose how to spend these dollars so I did what any eight year old girl would do-I decided to buy some lottery tickets. I walked into a liquor store and bought three scratch tickets. Is it worse that my dad not only allowed but encouraged me to do it or that the man behind the counter of a liquor store sold scratch tickets to an eight year old girl? "Um, they're for my dad."

Anyway, when I got home I grabbed a penny and scratched myself a $500 winner! Naturally, my parents also gave me the liberty to decide what to spend that money on and naturally, I decided to buy a waterbed. Was there anything not cool about a waterbed in 1984? I remember the day we filled it-the garden hose running through the house into my room-it took hours. When it was finished I topped it off with glorious pink satin sheets and invited friends to come over and look at it. "yes you can sit on it-just the edge..and not all at once!" Everyone was jealous and it was the talk of the class for at least a week.

As I basked in the glory of my new bed it never occurred to me that we had at least 3 cats-with claws. I would later realize why these things don't mix. The bed only lasted a few years but the memories will live on forever. I would curl up in my warm floating island while reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and try to ignore the drowning dreams that would subsequently follow.

I guess the whole point of this story is that while I value Elise's independence and encourage her to choose the things she wants in life, there are some things I will have to put my foot down about.