In recent days / weeks / months, the wife and I have taken great pain (with much help from others) to get my office moved, the nursery started and get Lauren's "new" room ready for her.

Now, those that know her know full well that there's no way on God's green rock that we'd dare broach the subject of moving her to a different room. After all, this is the girl that insists you not leave a sock or receipt on her dresser when she's going to sleep for the night.

But we have put in new furniture, painted, and assembled her new bed (and moved the crib off and into a corner more or less) trying to encourage her to vacate the crib in favor of said new bed. And actually, the bed's not new. It's been in there since she asked for it in January. She just chooses not to sleep in it.

Her crib is one of those birth to lonely death beds that convert from crib to daybed to bed with headboard and back again, so you should "never ever need to buy this child another bed again."

Unless of course, you decide to have another child and don't want to invest one thin dime into any crib, new or used, since you have one that most assuredly would get vacated about 2 seconds after the baby came home anywyay.

Now, my initial plan was to remove everything that she has / likes /wants in her crib and putting it in the bed that's next to her crib. I'm talking no sheets, no pillow, no piggy, no bee-bees, no blanket, no "guys," nothing. Either that or waiting until the new arrival comes home, and putting her in bed with Lauren.

(Quite frankly I figured that this latter idea would really work and be quite funny. Alas, I was out-voted by the wife).

So, this weekend, we have decided that it's time slowly start removing parts from the crib to make it less appealing. We will remove the front gate, making it a day bed on Saturday. I feel confident that this will lead to a night of not good sleep, but I plan to Nyquil and Tylenol PM my way through any wimpering.

I'll keep you posted...