Perhaps I spoke prematurely in regards to how well Ana is doing with the transition to the big girl bed. Sigh.

At 1:30am, the door to our bedroom opened, silhouetting a tiny tot in footy pjs, a Snow White doll under her arm. Wes woke up enough to inform me that, “Ana is here,” to which I wanted to reply, “No kidding. I thought it was a magical fairy sent here to grant me three wishes!” (I refrained from saying this. Thankfully.) I pulled Ana into the bed and tried to find out what was wrong. She was tight-lipped about it, until I told her I would take her back to her bed. Then, she started whimpering and crying, whispering, “Wanna stay in Mommy’s bed.” Break my heart. Not wanting her to ever get used to sleeping in our bed, though, I told her I would take her back to her room and lie down next to her bed until she fell back asleep. She reluctantly agreed, and we headed out. Several things throughout the course of what was left of the evening led me to suspect that she had a tummyache, but I still have no conclusive evidence that anything was actually wrong last night. At least anything wrong enough to justify leaving the big girl bed. My intention was to go back to bed once she fell asleep, but I think she outlasted me. I’m assuming so, since I woke up this morning, lying on the floor of a big girl’s room with a curious tot staring me down and poking me. Nice.

So, here’s my question to all of you who have walked this road before. (Or are currently walking it.) Am I just going to have these nights for a while? Or is there a better way to make her understand that she needs to stay in her room? And, provided that she does really need to get to us in the middle of the night, how do you teach a two year old to *ahem* at least knock on the door before she just runs into her parents’ bedroom? Any suggestions, ideas, thoughts that worked for you and yours?