Since turning two, Eliel has been on borrowed time with his pacifier. It is referred to as a binky in our house. Since about six months old, Eliel has never been allowed to have his binky outside of his bed. He was allowed to have it only when sleeping. We didn't take it anywhere unless he was spending the night at a grandparents' house. Even so, Eliel became very attached to his binky. Not so much so that he would cry in the middle of the night if he didn't have it, but it definitely helped him to fall asleep faster.
Although everyone has a different opinion, we felt like two years old was time to put the binky away. Many dentists will tell you that if you leave them in too long, you can affect the teeth and we certainly did not want to do that. We felt like the longer we waited, the harder it would be to get rid of so we devised a plan.
We knew we wanted to get rid of it cold turkey but felt like giving Eliel a reason to give it up was important. He was not going to let one of his prized possessions go without good reason. So, being the good parents we are, we lied to him. :) We told him that there were babies who didn't have a binky and that he needed to send his to them so that they could have one. Plus, since he wasn't a baby anymore, he didn't need his anyway.
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| It's a binky in a box for a baby! |
In case I haven't mentioned it before, Eliel LOVES the mailman. He has a cute little sing song name for him and every time he comes around, he gets excited about it. Lucky for us, he comes six times a week! ;) Anyway , we decide to 'use' the mailman in our binky plot. So, we told Eliel that he needed to give the binky to the mailman so he could deliver it to the babies who needed it. We must be really good actors because he totally bought it! He got all excited that he was going to give the mailman something (instead of the usual other way around). Plus, in order to make it even more exiting, we told him that the mailman would leave him a surprise as a thank you for the binky.
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| What did I get? |
So, yesterday morning, I found a fun blue tin in my stash (thanks Aunt Aliceson!) and told Eliel that it was a special binky delivery box. So, just after our morning snack, Eliel placed his last remaining precious binky in the box and we left it outside the front door for the mailman to take. Lo and behold, a few minutes later while he was eating his snack, he heard the mailman (aka Daddy) putting stuff in the mailbox. I've never seen this kid try so hard to get out of his highchair. He started yelling 'mailman' and asked to have his hands wiped up so he could get up. When Daddy came in from 'taking Nugget outside to go potty' Eliel proceeded to tell him that the mailman had been there.
We all went quickly to the front door to see what the mailman had left. To Eliel's delight it was a HUGE box of Jelly Bellies! They were so heavy he could barely hold them but he was quite proud. The real question was did he understand that his binky was gone for good.
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| Whoa! This is heavy! |
Later that afternoon when it was time for a nap, we found out. Everything was going good until just before we walked out of the room and he asked for his binky. We reminded him that he gave it to the babies and the mailman gave him jelly bellies to say thank you. He seemed fine and layed right down. Yay! No crying or fits! He did however take almost 50 minutes to fall asleep for his nap and over an hour to fall asleep later that evening so obviously the binky was part of his wind down. Hopefully, it will gradually take him less time to fall asleep without it though. I wonder how many days it will take him to stop asking for it though! :P
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