Stickin' to It

Today is Day Three of Binky Wars (cue ominous music.)

A couple of nights ago, Evelyn forgot to ask for the binky when she got tucked into bed. I followed Phil downstairs and we wagered bets on how long it would be before she realized it was missing. He expressed that he thought she was way too old for a pacifier anyway. I remembered that Jamie was done using his before Evelyn was born, and that when she was born he was younger than she is now. Hmmm. 

Now we had tried just going to the Only-in-Bed Binky before... The plan was we would put them in a bowl on the counter until it was naptime or bedtime. The trouble is that no height is out-of-reach for this kid. She just finds something to push on over and climb on... and if that's not high enough, she'll find something else to put on top of it, and within five seconds she'll be up there and down before I can even have a freak-out about it. So we started hiding the binkies... but then she got even better at hiding them from us. Way too clever. Phil and I decided perhaps she wasn't quite ready to give them up and therefore we gave in.

This time, the only option was cold turkey: No binkies, no more, not ever. We knew this wouldn't happen without some royal payback and considering that I'm home with the munchkin all day I wasn't exactly looking forward to it. (Imagining major meltdowns at the grocery store and toileting "accidents" of epic proportions...) Now you might be from the camp of parents that see no reason why I should remove the binky in the first place... She'll grow out of it, right? Part of me feels that way too. And besides, when she doesn't have it in she puts all sorts of other things in her mouth. On the other hand she is forgetting about the binky more and more during the day, she doesn't really suck on it anymore (she just sort of plays with it,)  they are expensive to keep buying and the places she was hiding them couldn't necessarily be considered sanitary. And then, our family dentist has been giving me some not-so-subtle hints. Nope. It's time. We've decided we are done with binkies.  I threw out the ones I could find and we settled in for a long night. (Mama 1, Evelyn 0)

She stayed up until almost midnight, getting up every 5 minutes to insist that we were forgetting something and that she would not go to sleep until she got her binky. (Mama 1, Evelyn 1)

We did not give in and she did go to sleep. (Mama 2, Evelyn 1)

Evelyn came downstairs the next morning with a binky in her mouth. (Mama 2, Evelyn 2)

I used stealth to remove it from the table when she was eating breakfast, and buried it under a banana peel in the trash can. (Mama 3, Evelyn 2)

Evelyn went on a playdate without a binky and came back with another one in her mouth... Aw snap, I must have forgotten about that one in the diaper bag! (Mama 3, Evelyn 3)

I asked her to hand it to me, and instead she led me on a crazy chase around the house - laughing and squealing until I caught her, and then she flipped the switch to screaming tantrum mode... After which I had to fortify myself with more coffee and couple of Tylenol. (Mama 3, Evelyn 4)

Deciding it must be naptime, I put her to bed - without the binky. I taught her a little song I made up just for her... about how we love the binky, but that she's a big girl and doesn't need it anymore. I tell her a story about how the Big-girl Fairy came and took away all the binkies from the big girls so they could give them to all the tiny babies. This story makes me a little sad... Not sure if that's because I'm sort of lying to my kid, or because my little girl is growing up. Nevertheless, she puts her head on the pillow and I close the door. (Mama 4, Evelyn 4)

Evelyn gets up 5 minutes later to tell me that she's a big girl and doesn't need naps anymore. (Mama 4, Evelyn 5)

And so it continues... She's found several pacifiers over the last couple of days. I am convinced she has a secret stash of them somewhere, but they will be depleted eventually and I am certain we will prevail in the end. In the meantime, I guess I need to come up with strategies for getting things done around the house with a child who doesn't take naps but gets super grouchy without them.