Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow

When Aren was a baby I did everything the doctor told me to...solids at four months, fruits and veggies one at a time at six months, no peanut butter, and the bottle is gone at one year - check, check, check, and check! When Lily was born I was little more relaxed, maybe too much. I remember driving to Utah from Arizona and it was the middle of the night and she was screaming and we were no where near a place to buy milk so I grabbed her bottle, threw in some Mountain Dew, gave it to her and she calmed right down! Oh, that magic elixir we call Dew.

I seemed to find a balance with Tania. We started getting rid of her bottle around 15 months, peanut butter was introduced a little too early, but hey, it had been a while since I'd had a kid. The one thing that we couldn't rid her of was The Binky. She loved it. A few months ago I finally got her down to using it only at nap time and bed time, but it was her drug of choice. Every morning she would wake up and walk into our room and I'd say, "Tania, can I have your binky please?" She would go to grab it out of her mouth, but first she would take a few good sucks before giving it up.

Tania's turning three next week so I knew we had to stop this. It was either this or potty training - I know, no brainer. So Friday afternoon, I asked Tania to go find her binkies, we knew of three of them existed, and she knew just where they all were. We put them in a ziploc bag and told her we were taking her to Target and she could bring her binkies with her. Seriously? She looked like a kid in a binky shop. We then told her that she could get anything she wanted from the store, but it would cost her the binkies.

How did it go? Surprisingly it worked like a charm. Rick tried to show her doctor sets and music sets but all Tania wanted was a Snow White princess doll and a princess tea set. Sorry, Rick. She gave the binkies to the cashier, who thought we were freaking insane, and we came home. She cried herself to sleep in my arms that night saying over and over, "Oh binky. Oh binky. I need you!" So horribly sad, right? Oh well. Her slightly buck teeth will be back to normal in no time and she'll thank me after the years of therapy are paid for.