The power of communication

We are traveling to San Francisco June 27 and we will be staying with G's sister and family. They have a bunk bed and R, his sister, called to say she's got a bed set up for D in the girls' room.
So, to prepare we are going to transition her crib to a toddler bed ASAP. I kept telling D, "We are going to transition you into a big girl's bed, D! Daddy is going to change your bed into a big girl bed!!"
So every day D would ask, "Am I going to get a big girl bed?" And alas, we just didn't get around to ordering the converter so off we fly to SF.
When we got in, it was already almost 9pm. Her cousins were fast asleep. D had dinner, played for a few and then I took her up to bed. We showed her her own big girl bed then showed her that her two cousins were already asleep. I put her security blankets, baby giraffe on the bed and then said good night...she fell right asleep!
Whoohoo!
Today - girls played around all day. While N, D's younger cousin caught a nice nap while driving around the city, apparently everyone was too loud for D to take a nap so no nap for her today. Given recent experiences in the past week, I didn't think D would ever consider taking a nap if she could hear her cousins horsing around downstairs.
She was a bit more sensitive than other days but no major meltdowns.
By 6pm I thought it better to just put her to bed even though regular bedtime for all three girls is 7:30/8pm. I was a bit apprehensive at first to put D to bed in her big girl bed without all the other girls sleeping because I was afraid she'd just jump right up and walk around.
Alas, that did not happen. I put her to bed and she fell right asleep! Sweet!