goodbye binkey... hello blanket? lovee? seahorse? stuffed animal? baby doll?... anything??!!

Sooo we did it... we got rid of that blasted binkey the night the Fellows headed home. I figured there was no better timing because we weren't going in any trips soon, and I was still watching you. The reason we wanted to say bye bye to the bink was because you only wanted the Soothie kind which are bad for your teeth... and you have 10 teeth.

That first night we snipped off the top and gave them to you that way. It was soo sad to see you put it in your mouth then realize something was wrong with it, then pull it out and look at it, over and over again. You woke up a couple times that night and we held and rocked you back to sleep. You love it when we tickle your face and rub your back. After the next days naps with the non functional binkey I couldn't handle it anymore - it was too sad seeing you be reminded of it so I took it away completely.

That next night you woke up a little less and went to sleep with minimum crying. Then your two bottom molars got swollen and started teething. Those blasted bottom two molars were coming up. And then you got sick... for 2 weeks. If we would have known that was going to happen we would have delayed it, but there was no going back! It ended up probably being the worst time to take them away but you were such a trooper.

Now (3 weeks later), you still cry for about 15 minutes when we lay you down for your 1 nap. We don't do the 2 naps a day anymore unless you wake up earlier than 7am because you cry for too long - it's just better to do the single nap. The strange thing is you don't cry when we put you down at night for bed. You'll play in your crib and talk to yourself for about 30 minutes before you nod off to sleep.

When we took away the bink completely we thought you should have something else to soothe you like a blanket, stuffed animal, or something of that sort. Whenever we would try to lay you down with any of those you threw them off you with no interest in them at all. Tyson said one day that I should lay out any potential soothing stuffed animals on a blanket and use the one you gravitated toward. As you can see from the picture above, you just looked at them like "what the heck are you doing mom?!"

Soooo ya... that didn't work...

So then we decided that while you're in your car seat, reading books before bed, or anytime you would want to be soothed we would give you a little 12" by 12" super soft blanket with a little giraffe head on it. It's pretty cute, and we thought it would work. We called it your Lovee and I think it's very slowly growing on you. Hopefully it will be your new soothie and you won't cry when we lay you down for your naps anymore. We shall see I guess.

We also went to visit Tyson's family in Kingman, AZ last weekend. The drive was 3 hours each way, and with some special toys and the DVD player playing Baby Einstein we made it - BINKEY FREE! Man that was an experience though that will hopefully get easier.

So as for now, we've loved not having to haul multiple binks around with us but we're sad that you haven't gravitated toward another soothing thing yet. Hopefully that will change soon :0)