Imagine, if you will, a night. What night it is doesn't matter, but for kicks a Wednesday night. 2 little boys have been sent to bed sometime between 8 and 830. They have been bathed, read to, rocked, hugged, and kissed. They have their bedtime friends, blankets and binkies. Momma comes back out to the living room to take a deep breath and start picking up. With in 10 mins she hears the usual "Mommy! I need my water!" She takes another deep breath and thinks 'I knew I forgot something'. She grabs 2 sippy cups, fills them with water and goes back into the bedroom where her 2 babies are SUPPOSED to be sleeping. Handing them their sippy cups of water she kisses them again and leaves. 10 mins later she hears a voice, a little more whiny this time, "But Mommy! I don't want my bear!" *Deep Breath* Going back in she tucks Bubba back into bed and says, "then just put him back in the toy box and get back in bed. I love you, Goodnight." 15 mins later..."Mommy! I want my red bear! not blue bear!" *Deep breath* (see a pattern yet?) "Bubba...Just get the animal you want and Get. Back. In. Bed!" By this time Momma is starting to loose her patience luckily this is also about the time that Daddy walks through the door home from work (9pm). The "Hi honey, how was your day" conversation starts, periodically being interrupted by little voices laughing, talking, making silly noises and laughing again. Daddy goes in. "You guys need to be quiet and go to sleep!"
He always comes out smiling because as every parent knows, its hard to tell your kids to stop laughing. We love to listen to our boys laugh together.
We continue discussing our days and listening to the boys laugh and laugh at each other. At about 930 Daddy goes in and says, trying desperately NOT to laugh "You guys need to be quiet and go to sleep! If you don't, I am going to take away your stuffed animals" 10 mins later the laughter continues and he goes back in to remove the bedtime friends and tell them they will loose their water next. At about 10 he goes in to take the water and tell them if they don't calm down and go to sleep he was going to take their binkies! At about 1030 the door opens *Dun dun dun* Daddy goes in and takes BOTH binkies. 11pm...silence. 1130 we go in to check and they are both out cold!
The next day (Thursday, if you're keeping track) Bubba doesn't get up till 730! (Which means he slept in for about 2 hrs!) Bear got up at about 430 and wouldn't go back to sleep so he got his binky back. He slept in till 9. They go to play with their friends while mommy works out on the house, come home. Bed time comes around, that's right, *Deep breath*, No binkies tonight! Boys are put in bed and are asleep in about 30 mins with NO binkies (except bear who got his back again because he would NOT STOP talking! *Happy Dance of Joy for Bubba* Friday, Binkies aren't even asked for! Bear gets his for naps but Bubba NEVER sees it. Saturday, Boys spend the morning with Grama, no binkies. Bubba goes to the monster Truck show (post coming soon) with Daddy and Grampa and no Binky is asked for or used. Sat night, bed time was a breeze (mainly because he fell asleep in Daddy's lap while watching a movie) Sunday (day 4) We get up, Get breakfast. Bubba burns his finger on the toaster helping Momma make breakfast. We get eat, get dressed and get to church, whiny children in tow. We don't even make it through Sacrament meeting and decide to just go home because the boys are just NOT happy no matter what we do.
It's the hardest day and I have never been more tempted to just give it back to him. Greg and I keep thinking is it really worth it. Bear won't stop talking and go to sleep with out his so we have given his back to him but Bubba will be 3 in march!! I don't want to have to go to the pediatrician and try and explain to him why my 3 yr old still has a binky! I just keep telling myself that if we give it back to him then the next time we try it will be that much harder. I don't know where I stand. Some think they should just keep it till they decide they don't want it (how many grown adults do you see that still use a binky) others say that it's bad for their teeth and they don't really need it. Teach them to self soothe. Taking a binky away is one of those things that you know is hard but you don't know how hard until you have to be the one to take it away. We didn't plan this, it just kind of happened. I tried the Binky fairy and apparently I'm not very convincing and he is WAY to smart. He looked me right in the eye and told me there was no binky fairy! LoL! I tried to get him to mail them to his auntie so that when she had 'Big D' he would have a binky but he wanted to keep one for himself too. I finally just showed him that they weren't on the counter anymore and that seemed to help. He gets the fact that there are no more and that they are all gone. I'm just waiting for him to realize that he really doesn't need one. If anyone has anymore tips or tricks that you have used that I haven't PLEASE Share! We can use all the help we can get!
3rd wall going up! (back right corner/Master bedroom)
