All of my boys have loved their binkies, but Gavin was IN LOVE with his binkie! He would go to bed with a binkie in his mouth and one in each hand - or more if he could find them. I was trying to be so good to only let him have them at nap time and bedtime, but he is such a monkey! He would figure out my hiding place and he would climb onto the counter tops and get into the cabinets to get them. ALL of them. I always got a kick out of the moments that I would walk into the room and he would run over and say "Here, Mom" and hand me his binkies since he knew I wouldn't want him to have them. Of course if I wasn't in the room he figured they were free game. You could see him savoring each little suck on the binkie before he would give it up. Because of that love, I honestly wondered if he would head off to Kindergarten with them. I didn't have the heart to take them from him permanently.
Ever since Gavin was potty-trained (which has been AWESOME!! He is now dry at nights too!), we have been talking to him about what a big boy he is and that big boys don't need binkies. I have mentioned to him a few times that when he is ready, we can take his binkies to the store and trade them in for a toy. He wasn't interested, which I wasn't surprised about. But then one day he brought it up. So we talked about it more and I told him we had to gather them all up to trade them in. He helped me search all over the house - especially under his bed. We got them all in a baggie and planned to go to the store when dad got home to pick a toy and "pay" for it with his binkies.
Throughout the day, he decided he wanted to go get ice cream for his prize instead. When dad got home, we went to City Market to pick out yummies to make ice cream sundaes. He picked the ice cream and we went up to the checkout line. Luckily the checker understood what we were doing. He paid with his binkies and she set them aside as she was finishing up the transaction. He was trying his hardest to keep an eye on them, but he didn't argue, luckily!
We had a great ice cream party when we got home. When it was time for bed, Gavin asked for his binkies and started into his long repeated list of "Why's" that he is so good at when I told him that we didn't have them anymore. After one short fit, he settled right down. The battle wasn't near what I thought it was going to be.
In the days since, he has done so great. The first few days he did ask for them, but it has continued to lessen and I don't think he has even mentioned them in the last few days. I seriously am so surprised at how great he has done with giving them up. I have missed them most at nap time since now I have to lay down with him to keep him in bed. Just the threat of loosing his binkies in the past if he didn't stay in bed kept him there. Oh well. Trade-offs!
Good job, Sweet Gavin! We are so happy with what a big boy you have become!
1 comment:
I was sad when we gave up Carter's binkies too. He was far more brave about the situation than I was.
Post a Comment