If she could hold back time

So we've been struggling lately to get Isadora to move from her crib to sleeping on an adult twin mattress for the past few weeks. The other day, Nancy decided to try dismantling the crib, piece by piece, and the first piece we took off was the gate on one side, so that she could now climb in and out without any trouble.

That afternoon, I took Isadora in for her nap, and when she saw the crib, without bars on one side, she burst into tears and began pleading with me. "Where's the side? I need the side! Put on the side!" And as I tried to reason with her, she began chanting in that-out-of-breath, panicky voice she uses when she's trying to explain something through her crying, "I need the side! I need it! I need it! It's broked. Daddy fix it! I need the side! Put on the side!"

I decided to appeal to her vanity. "Isadora," I said, "we took off the side because we want you to be able to get in bed by yourself. And you were getting too old for it." I thought she might be proud of this fact. But instead, she literally wailed, "I'M NOT GONNA GET OLD!"

I had no idea she was so anxious about the passing of time.

My last ploy was to use her fear of the sideless crib to coax her onto the mattress. But when I explained that she had to choose between either the sideless crib or the big mattress, she chose the crib. We'll see what she does when we dismantle it even further.