Psst! Happy birthday to my dad! He hates attention, but loves me. If you know him, wish him a happy birthday. In a nonchalant sort of way. Or at least think it in his direction.
1. Best new game ever: Hide and Sheep. Michael taught a little lesson this week about Jesus and the lost sheep. We tried to make it fun by hiding our little sheep and having the kids find him. Well, the only part of the lesson that hit home for Milo was “Hide-and-Sheep.” So we play it daily, of course.
2. Praise the Target Dollar Spot and craft section. We love little $1 packages of feathers or pom-poms or plastic dinosaurs we find there. The stickers pictured here are actually leftover from last year (a giant bin of about 200 foam stickers for $2!). They help us change up our little sensory routine regularly without breaking the bank, which came in handy this week. We had record-breaking desert rain that the ground just couldn’t handle, resulting in lots of flooding and soggy ground unfit for playing outside.
3. This girl loves a “cozy spot.” Somewhere small, soft, fluffy, or enclosed. (Better, if all of them). I’d love to make her a little spot in her room like this. I just need to come up with a good idea… Milo has taken over our little circus tent, but I think Sophie might like something like a soft rug or a little chair or something… In the meantime, a little basket lined with blankets seems to work so long as one’s little brother doesn’t crowd one out.
4. I’m almost thinking about sort of preparing myself for The Great Binkie Extinction. I know so many of you have gotten rid of baby’s pacifier before and have experience to share. I’ve just been such a chicken! I don’t know that anyone would understand what it means to have a “binkie fairy” come or really grasp what it means to “pay” for something with their pacifier. What’s worked for you? How did you stay strong? Please tell me that your children magically slept really well and didn’t give up naps as a result. Otherwise, my children may go to high school with theirs. Hang the orthodonture costs!
5. There are a lot of things about toddlerhood I will not miss (sleepless nights and explosive diapers), but chocolate-smudged faces isn’t one of them. I love seeing little ones in bibs with messy faces and happy tummies.
Happy weekend, dear reader! Wishing you every good thing!
My daughter weaned her daughter off the pacifier very gradually. first saying she could only have it when she was in bed, then only at nighttime. After a few weeks of that she told her they were going to give all her pacis to babies who don’t have any. She seemed to accept that although there were a few hard nights. We realized that she understood when I had her with me at Target and she saw a baby with a pacifier and yelled out “that baby has my paci”. She was probably about 2 1/2 or 3.
I got rid of John’s binky when he was 18 months old. He handled it really well. It may have helped that he caught a cold the night after the binky “disappeared” so he couldn’t suck on it anyways. He still sleeps through the night and is a great napper. Best Wishes!
I obviously have no pacifer wisdom to pass along, but WILL be passing along so many good thoughts of long naps, sleep filled nights, and happy babies!
Check out this sweet “cozy little spot” on Pintrest.
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/343751384028629860/
Oh, and hold onto the pacifier a little longer so you can do this for Halloween 🙂
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/343751384030794949/
Oh my gosh Amy! That costume!!!
I know! It’s just the best. It sure makes the most of a pacifier ;o)
This is the one lesson I really learned about ‘losing’ pacifiers. Our babies ALL slept much better once we did permanently lose them (and after the obligatory rough few nights during the adjustment to pacifier-less-ness.)
It’s just plain tough to transition. But afterwards, I hope you too, will wonder why you didn’t do it sooner!
Please Bless
Sophie’s wink is killin me! So cute!
As for pacifiers. My kids have both been fine only having them at naps and bedtime so maybe it was a bit easier. For Paige I tried snipping it little by little, she didn’t care and still sucked on it. So after months of that I just cut it so she couldn’t suck on it. She tried it, I said it was broken and that was it! Surprisingly didn’t miss it. She asked for it at the next bedtime and I just reminded her that it was broken and showed her and that was the end of it. You can do it!!
First let me say that I’m a huge fan of binkies. I purchased MANY of them, so I’d never be without! I was pretty free with them for the fist 18 months or so, after which I let Truman have free reign of them–in his bed. That meant a lot of in and out of the bed for the first couple of days until he figured out that I was serious. Then he looked forward to nap and bed (and binky) time. And it was glorious.
I didn’t even try to wean him from them until he started biting through them (he was almost 2); I laid them all out on (a clean blanket on =)) the floor and we counted them. I snipped the end off the one he’d bitten and let him put it in his mouth. He didn’t like how it felt, so he threw it in the garbage can and we counted the remaining binkies. We did this same little ritual each time until he was down to one last, beloved binky. He made that puppy last and last, but it too finally bit the dust. And then it was over. Totally natural consequence. He could see the progress and the process so there were no surprises and, most gloriously, there was no drama.
Good luck!
We just took away our almost 18-month-old’s binky when he bit a chunk of the plastic off. That freaked me out enough to want them all gone. We’d also been planning on moving him out of our room and into his sister’s room for bedtime, so we just did it all at once. I figured, if he was going to be mad and have his sleep screwed up for a few days, better to accomplish several things at once. 😉 He did great! A few rough middle of the nights, but he’s still napping twice a day, and is back to sleeping well at night. Good luck! The kiddos will do great!
I heard cutting off the tip of the paci is a miraculous way to make kids hate it. They never look back.
So….I don’t have much experience with the binky situation, as my kids didn’t get too attached to them. But I have a friend that swore by this….
Do not tell the child you are doing this, but one day cut a small bit off the tip of the pacifier. (This first time they will probably not recognize the difference). But then a few days to a week later, cut a little bit more off. The next week, repeat. Pretty soon there won’t be much “binky” for them to suck on to. Her kids after a few cuts, got a bit frustrated and just stopped using them. I think the trick here is to not tell the kids what you are doing or let them see you cut them. Will it work for all kids? Not sure, but may be worth a shot! Good luck!
My cousin always just snipped the end off the binkies and when the kid tried to suck on it he/she realized it didn’t work anymore, carried it around for a few days, and forgot about it. “Binky broken?” was what she heard a lot haha. Mason never took one so I only have second hand experience to share.