We Put the Passy in the Trashy!

Well, we've done it! We've committed to the long process of getting rid of the bink. We've been planning this day for so long. We've debated on what way would be least psychologically damaging. I bought a book to start reading him while we were trying to figure out what we would to so that he could start preparing in a way. The book is called "Pacifiers are not Forever." We read it so many times that he actually has it memorized word-for-word. We finally came to a conclusion to take a "Super Nanny" approach. I watched an episode a long time ago where one of the Wilson Phillips singers had the Super Nanny help her rid her baby from his Binky. She had him mail his binkies to a "Binky Fairy." It worked really well for them and supposedly, the kid never asked about it again. I thought about that for a long time and just didn't feel like Anders would care too much about a Binky Fairy. It occurred to me one day that the one thing he loves right now more than anything is Mickey Mouse. I talked it over with Christian and we decided that we'd have Anders mail his binkies to "Mickey Mouse" and Mickey would mail him back something really cool. We now had to think of the perfect gift that would replace his binkies. It was a hard thing to come up with because Anders' binkies are probably the most important things to him. We finally decided to buy him really cool Mickey Mouse pj's. I bought the pajamas from the Disney Store on Father's Day weekend and we've still just been holding on to them. We were too scared to finally make the commitment. This morning, I woke up and told Christian we needed to go buy Anders a basketball hoop. That is the one thing he loves just about as much as his binkies. He loves to play basketball and he's pretty dang good for a 2 1/2 year-old. So after the months of planning what we were doing down to the very smallest detail, we changed our minds within a few seconds. I called Anders in our room and explained to him that if he threw his binkies away, we'd go buy a basketball hoop. Immediately, he pulled it out of his mouth and said, "okay!" I actually had him cut the Binky with scissors to make sure he really understood what we were doing. I could sense some hesitation in him, but he still did it. I grabbed his other Binky and handed it to him. He looked down at the Binky for a second and he popped it in his mouth for one last time. I swear, I felt like I was dealing with an addict. He then cut his other Binky and was immediately ready to go to the toy store. We got him a great basketball hoop! We brought it home and he literally played on it every second he could. Soon, nap time came around. He started walking to his room with me when all of a sudden it hit him. He stopped in his tracks and started hysterically screaming, "uh oh! I need my bink! I need my bink!" I tried to be really empathetic and calm. I tried talking him through it, but it did no good. In no time, I found Anders doing this:

He was saying, "find it Mom! Please take my basketball hoop back and fix my Binky!" It was breaking my heart to hear him say that. It really showed me how hard this is really going to be on him. He pulled everything out of the garbage can to find his Binky. I can honestly say I have never seen him so hysterical or out of control in his life. He had the hardest time calming down. After 6 time-outs, he finally was in bed to stay. I felt so bad for him because he fell asleep with his back to me and his face jammed in the crack between the wall and the bed. He was still doing his hiccuppy breathing when he finally fell asleep. I thought I was in the clear at that point. I started getting phone calls and text messages from people trying to see how I was doing. About an hour and a half after he'd finally fallen asleep, he woke up. He came out to the room I was in and we re-hashed the exact melt-down he'd had a couple hours earlier. The melt-down eventually ended like this:

He fell asleep face-down on the living room floor. My heart just breaks for my poor little boy. I take full responsibility for his reliance on his Binky. We thought we would find some way to make it as easy as possible and there is no such thing! I put it off because it was more of a security for me than it was for Anders. I knew that with the bink around, there was always an instant way to calm him down or comfort him. Now I'm really paying for it. After his second nap, we took him over to my mom's house and he was so excited to brag about being such a big boy and his new basketball hoop. I think it will start to get better. When he was on his way to his bedroom to go to bed for the night, he turned around with a smirk on his face and calmly said, "I want my bink" to me. I got a little nervous and soon realized he was kidding because he knew it was gone. He then smiled and kept walking. What a tease! To sum it all up, I had the day from hell! Did I mention that Christian worked all day?? Yep, I did this all solo while juggling a 3 month-old as well. Phew, I'm spent!

P.S. If you're wondering why it seems like he is never wearing pants, it's because he's not ever wearing pants! I have to pick my battles.